5 ms·

The military budget is $700 billion, as stated in the article. They probably spend more than $15mm on toilet paper for a single Airforce base.

TheAdamAndChe 6y ago
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?
- klyrs 6y ago
  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.
  - TheAdamAndChe 6y ago
    The article did not mention that they covered a narrative that Trump disliked. Where did you get that from?
    - matt_kantor 6y ago
      > https://www.stripes.com/news/us/trump-denies-reports-that-he-disparaged-us-war-dead-as-losers-suckers-1.643839 https://www.stripes.com/news/us/trump-denies-reports-that-he... > A few days ago they also ran a story about a poll showing Trump lagging Biden among the military. Thanks to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24375564 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24375564
      - liability 6y ago
        It may well be retaliatory, but not for that specific article/poll. The Trump administration proposed defunding Stars and Stripes back in February. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/the-stars-and-stripes-newspaper-has-long-supported-the-troops-now-it-needs-congresss-support/2020/06/18/10046b92-8982-11ea-8ac1-bfb250876b7a_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/the-stars-... > In February, the Trump administration proposed eliminating all of the publication’s federal support in 2021. That’s more than $15 million a year, about half its budget. “I can’t think of a graver threat to its independence,” the paper’s ombudsman, Ernie Gates, told me recently. “That’s a fatal cut.”
        matt_kantor 6y ago
        Thanks, I should have noticed that too. My fault for commenting before coffee. Sucks that you've been downvoted for pointing out a fact.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
        klyrs 6y ago
        Oops, well spotted. He's still a tin-pot dictator rabidly against the press, but this particular correlation doesn't seem to be causative.
- dastbe 6y ago
  you'd probably move the fighter jet out of the garage first
- wolfram74 6y ago
  You probably don't grab a tooth pick from way in the back and call it a day.
atonse 6y ago
It's worse than you can imagine. I once witnessed a defense client creating a $5 mil project with a defense contractor out of thin air, because they didn't want to lose the money at the end of the fiscal year (which was 3 months away). Overnight, the defense contractor assembled a team of 20 people that were on the bench, so they could bill for the project. 20 random people that had never worked together before, all to work on an experimental java project the agency didn't need until that Monday (and I'd argue, didn't need even after that Monday). I suggested in that meeting "why don't we just return the money to the taxpayer?" and got glares from at least two senior executives. Right there is 1/3 of the $15 million that is spent on Stars and Stripes. With a $700bn budget, based on what I've seen of the defense industrial complex, I'd suspect at least 10% of that goes to complete waste (and toilet paper isn't waste. I mean things like IT projects that don't see the light of day, etc).
- snowwrestler 6y ago
  Sounds like you witnessed federal contract fraud, which is a felony. Unfortunately there is no longer any good way to report this crime. Official whistleblower channels are compromised or ineffective, and going directly to the public... well, there are plenty of cautionary examples of how poorly that tends to go.
  - atonse 6y ago
    Well I never witnessed any government employee saying this. I just realized my language sounded like I did. Oops. I was in a (private sector) meeting where they relayed the situation. So I wouldn’t say I witnessed it. I was called into a brainstorming session for “how can we spend this money? We need to come up with something quickly.”

TheAdamAndChe 6y ago

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?

klyrs 6y ago
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.
- TheAdamAndChe 6y ago
  The article did not mention that they covered a narrative that Trump disliked. Where did you get that from?
  - matt_kantor 6y ago
    > https://www.stripes.com/news/us/trump-denies-reports-that-he-disparaged-us-war-dead-as-losers-suckers-1.643839 https://www.stripes.com/news/us/trump-denies-reports-that-he... > A few days ago they also ran a story about a poll showing Trump lagging Biden among the military. Thanks to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24375564 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24375564
    - liability 6y ago
      It may well be retaliatory, but not for that specific article/poll. The Trump administration proposed defunding Stars and Stripes back in February. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/the-stars-and-stripes-newspaper-has-long-supported-the-troops-now-it-needs-congresss-support/2020/06/18/10046b92-8982-11ea-8ac1-bfb250876b7a_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/the-stars-... > In February, the Trump administration proposed eliminating all of the publication’s federal support in 2021. That’s more than $15 million a year, about half its budget. “I can’t think of a graver threat to its independence,” the paper’s ombudsman, Ernie Gates, told me recently. “That’s a fatal cut.”
      - matt_kantor 6y ago
        Thanks, I should have noticed that too. My fault for commenting before coffee. Sucks that you've been downvoted for pointing out a fact.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - klyrs 6y ago
        Oops, well spotted. He's still a tin-pot dictator rabidly against the press, but this particular correlation doesn't seem to be causative.
dastbe 6y ago
you'd probably move the fighter jet out of the garage first
wolfram74 6y ago
You probably don't grab a tooth pick from way in the back and call it a day.

atonse 6y ago

It's worse than you can imagine. I once witnessed a defense client creating a $5 mil project with a defense contractor out of thin air, because they didn't want to lose the money at the end of the fiscal year (which was 3 months away). Overnight, the defense contractor assembled a team of 20 people that were on the bench, so they could bill for the project. 20 random people that had never worked together before, all to work on an experimental java project the agency didn't need until that Monday (and I'd argue, didn't need even after that Monday). I suggested in that meeting "why don't we just return the money to the taxpayer?" and got glares from at least two senior executives. Right there is 1/3 of the $15 million that is spent on Stars and Stripes. With a $700bn budget, based on what I've seen of the defense industrial complex, I'd suspect at least 10% of that goes to complete waste (and toilet paper isn't waste. I mean things like IT projects that don't see the light of day, etc).

snowwrestler 6y ago
Sounds like you witnessed federal contract fraud, which is a felony. Unfortunately there is no longer any good way to report this crime. Official whistleblower channels are compromised or ineffective, and going directly to the public... well, there are plenty of cautionary examples of how poorly that tends to go.
- atonse 6y ago
  Well I never witnessed any government employee saying this. I just realized my language sounded like I did. Oops. I was in a (private sector) meeting where they relayed the situation. So I wouldn’t say I witnessed it. I was called into a brainstorming session for “how can we spend this money? We need to come up with something quickly.”