UPDATE: MAYBE NOT – The Pentagon allegedly has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down

| September 4, 2020

*BREAK*BREAK*BREAK* There’s an update on the story. Thanks to rgr1480 for the tip on the update.

Trump has now tweeted

The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch. It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!

Original story follows:

This is, of course, Trump’s fault and a demonstration of his disdain and hatred for the media.

In a heretofore unpublicized recent memo, the Pentagon delivered an order to shutter Stars and Stripes, a newspaper that has been a lifeline and a voice for American troops since the Civil War. The memo orders the publisher of the news organization (which now publishes online as well as in print) to present a plan that “dissolves the Stars and Stripes” by Sept. 15 including “specific timeline for vacating government owned/leased space worldwide.”

“The last newspaper publication (in all forms) will be September 30, 2020,” writes Col. Paul Haverstick Jr., the memo’s author.

It’s an election year, so cue the Democrat’s to say how terrible this will be for the military. They claim to have 1.3 million readers, which seems a wee bit…how do I say it?…inflated. If that’s the case, they shouldn’t have any trouble keeping the presses running through advertising revenue and paper sales, right?

Source; USA Today

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", 2020 Election, Big Pentagon, Military issues

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Anonymous

Just as well, was lots of progressive media twaddle now anyway.

2banana

Stars and Stripes went full woke years ago.

Reading it in Afghanistan a few years ago…I swear I was reading something produced by Taliban Rose.

Let it die.

Bill R.

It is theoretically possible that they have 1.3 million readers if they count Facebook hits as readers. But Anonymous is correct about the progressive media twaddle. They lean hard left.

Hack Stone

Hack Stone is still pissed when he submitted a photo of his 10 year old dependent to be published on the Stars & Stripes Birthday Wishes page. They had the audacity to say that they only published photos of humans. The poor guy was devastated.

#SheepdogLivesMatter!

Hack will need to dig through the archives to see if he still has that letter.

FuzeVT

Speciesist bastards!

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

If moola schmoola is the problem, then how about cutting the pay checks of all the shit bird republicans/demoRAT congress peeps. I think making 6 figures a year for these peeps should be down to maybe $50,000.00-$60,000.00 a year.

A Proud Infidel®™️

Hell, just how many millions of dollars did Malig-Nancy Pelosi and the D-rats waste on the Russia hoax and impeachment, not to mention the tax money they burn on junkets and personal luxuries?

Jerky Dave

Nah… I hear they clammor a bit about $15.00 an hour being a living wage… go with that (with no overtime allowed)

Skippy

No need to publish this anymore if they are not going to report news
The last one I read was all about how bad trump was and how great BLM is
It no longer serves the purpose of keeping service members informed and on events it’s a mouth piece
For the left wing in this country

Dennis - not chevy

40 years ago, when I was stationed in Japan, I would read Stars and Stripes and the English language Mainichi Daily News. When asked about why both, I said somewhere between the two was the real story.

5th/77th FA

Somehow or another I feel that the sun will rise in the East on that morning, God will be in His Heavens, and all will still be reported by some one…somewhere…somehow.

Is it too soon for an “About Time this happened” comment?

USAFRetired

I’ve never seen Stars & Stripes except OCONUS. So 1.3M readers seems a bit high. I still remeber the days of living in tent city at Al’s Garage during OSW, being able to get a whole weeks worth of S&S at a time usually a couple days late and get some idea of what was going on in the world and staying up to date on the comics. It helped kill time.

JustALurkinAround

Fuck. That paper had the only crossword puzzles I could actually complete.

Sparks

If the Democrats jump on this because, Trump, it would be another glowing example of their hypocrisy. Since they hold great disdain for all things military and American in general, it will be a hoot to see them jump on the side of our armed forces because, well, it’s an opportunity for knives out with Trump.

Commissar

They don’t hold disdain for all things military. That is just a bullshit right wing narrative.

Commissar

There are a few extreme people on the left who think military members are just jack boot government stooges.

But there are extreme right wing “sovereign citizen” people who think the same.

The core sentiment of both sides of the political spectrum is pretty respectful of the military and veterans.

The military is the most trusted institution of government in the country with a “trust and confidence” rating well over 80%. Usually between 84-89%.

That would be mathematically impossible if the left had disdain for the military.

So clearly you just parrot the idea that the left disdains “all things military” without having thought much about it at all.

I have dealt with both types.

Commissar

I am disappointed about this.

And blame Trump.

Because it was done directly by his Secretary of Defense against the bi-partisan recommendations of congress and the Pentagon.

So this literally is being done entirely because Trump wants it shut down.

luddite4change

Congress needs to approve funds. Last like I checked, I can’t pay the bills with a recommendation.

timactual

“And blame Trump.

Because…..”

You should get a rubber stamp made of that. It would save you lots of time.

timactual

Actually it would save all of us a lot of time. By now we can fill in the rest without your help.

MCPO USN

Lars,

Check your six, your stupid is showing.

Graybeard

His stupid is always showing, regardless of angle of approach.

And now the CiC has tweeted that S&S will be funded, Lars doesn’t know what to say….

Graybeard

Whoopsie Lars-boy. Your take sure didn’t age very well did it?

But you don’t seem to learn from your stupidity. Do you see it as your mission in life to be a good example of what not to say, think, and do? At that you are a fine example, I must say.

Commissar

He does this shit all the time. Makes a dipshit decision impulsively. Then when it backfires he reversed the decision, blames his minions, and claims he had no knowledge they had decided to do it.

There is no way in hell this would be done unilaterally without the presidents knowledge or consent.

Hack Stone

Yes, it certainly shows weak leadership when a President claims that he had no knowledge of what his subordinates did. Not that President Obama ever used that defense.

Please update you Sarcasm Recognition Software if you did not realize that Hack was being facetious.

Anonymous

Hey, he got the memo just like Joe…

timactual

Move over Adam and Eve. Trump is now the original sinner.

AW1 Rod

S&S is a fish wrapper. And not even a good one, at that. Good riddance.

David

‘Way back when Stars and Lies was a military offshoot of I think the International Herald Tribune. Seems to me I read it was taken over by Gannett, of USA Today(McNews) fame and it ha moved leftward ever since.

Trivia – a few FSA analysts once used S&S alone as a data source and put together a USAREUR TO&E more accurate than what the Pentagon had published.

Honor and Courage

They were just another paper that is funded by TPs and competing with the Army/ Military Times publications. Everything is online anyway any the Tree huggers want paper removed! Smart Move they were more important to our Enemies that also followed them closely for unit movement!

Anonymous

Loved how they kept revealing my unit’s contingency missions right before they would happen. Bastards.

RGR 4-78

Stars and Strippers.

They should start reporting on the Hollywierd scene, it would be more in line with their leftist values.

rgr769

That is why Larsie is so fond of S&S.

Duane

In the 80’s while in the Army, the S&S was something to read. The last issue I picked up a few years ago made me do a double-take to see if I had picked up something along the lines of the Enquirer by mistake, and that was the last issue I ever got.

Anonymous

Hasn’t gotten any better in 2020 I assure you. At least, where I was, they were free to us.

Thunderstixx

I’m waiting for poodle-dickless to come on and tell us in ten thousand words about his genius and how President Trump shuts down stuff that he doesn’t agree with…
And we’ll be like….
Uh huh….
Next !!!

Civilwarrior

S&S stopped being a military newspaper ages ago. The last time I read a hardcopy was on deployment in 2005-06, and it had a pretty clear political bias back then. Everything I have seen from the online version makes me inclined to not read it because the bias is just SO overwhelming. It does not serve to inform the troops anymore. It serves the purpose of chumming the water.

rgr1480

Trump says Stars and Stripes will stay funded, after reports the Pentagon was shutting it down

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/04/trump-stars-and-stripes-military-funded-409183

The cartoons were the best part. I remember reading “Nguyen Charlie” way back in 1969.

http://www.psywarrior.com/charlieVCLeafComic.jpg

timactual

“The cartoons were the best part”

That’s where Bill Mauldin made a name for himself.

Anonymous

He’d be disappointed by Stars & Stripes today.

timactual

Yeah, but I would love to see his cartoons on that.

Graybeard

I have the 2 Vol. collection of Bill Maudlin’s cartoons on my shelf.

Sometimes amazing how contemporary they are…

David

Amen.

Bill came from.Mountain Park NM, just uphill a ways from what is now Hollman AFB.

timactual

His book “The Brass Ring” is about his life in NM and his time in the Army reserve pre WWII. Excellent read.

timactual

I have three of his books—“Up Front”, “Back Home”, and “The Brass Ring”. YOu are right. Occasionally I will browse through one and it great. People have not really changed in the last 10,000 years or so. 10,000 years from now some archaeologist will find one of his books and say the same thing. And laugh just as much.

timactual

I read S&S in Germany in the 60s for the official view on things. Read the “Overseas Weekly” to find out what was really happening. Read S & S in Vietnam because it was better than nothing, but not by much. Already had the C-ration cans memorized.

Graybeard

Oh, I bet Larsy-boy is having a conniption fit trying to decide whether Trump-Bad-killed-S&S or Trump-Bad-saved-S&S….

Commissar

Trump does this crap all the time.

Gives a knee jerk order during a tantrum and then, when he faces backlash, he backs off and pretends he knew nothing about it and his ca inept acted alone without his knowledge or approval.

Pathetic, spineless, feels no responsibility for anything.

Glad he is not shutting it down. Disgusted with his scapegoating cowardice.

timactual

To heck with S&S. Have you seen what they did to PS magazine and Connie Rod?
*Sob*