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I think the sentence just contains very laid back observations of hypocrisy.

"affirms the publication's independence" = Says it's independent.

"expanding Defense Department oversight, introducing new restrictions" = makes it non-independent.

Conclusion: The sentence indicates the policy is hypocritical and built on lies. The sentence is not contradictory, the policy is.

> Seems like this sentence contains contradictory statements.

"War is peace."

"Freedom is slavery."

I assume it means changing governance policies while letting them continue to make their own decisions within that framework.

"You're absolutely completely free to write exactly what we tell you to"

Debasing language is the way of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink

That's the real loss.

The original idea behind Stars and Stripes was that it was a general newspaper for US troops. Reading it gave general world awareness. DoD's own output is very narrow. Here are DoD's current press releases.[1] They're written in a very evasive style now. Here's the one on de-emphasizing the Havana Syndrome research office, titled "War Department Announces Realignment of Anomalous Health Incidents Cross-Functional Team to the Office of Research and Engineering "[2] Unless you know the background, that's totally meaningless. Much DoD PR today seems to be at that level - too defensive and obfuscated. Either that, or it's just administrative announcements. There's almost nothing about the current wars.

DoD used to have something called "The Early Bird", discontinued in 2013. This was a reprint of press clippings for Pentagon-area staff.[4] It was supposedly restricted to DoD personnel to avoid copyright issues. It was politically neutral, but prioritized DoD issues, such as command changes and procurement, that would be very minor stories in the public media.

Worth noting is that this war does not seem to have war correspondents embedded with US troops. There's not much info coming in from ground level on the US side. Al Jazeera has coverage from the Arab world. CNN has some people in Tehran who were based there before the war and are still sending.

[1] https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/

[2] https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4411182/wa...

[3] https://www.marines.mil/News/Messages/Messages-Display/Artic...

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Early_Bird_(newsletter)

[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/

Wait, they can't even internally remember that they're the DoW (Department of War) and not DoD?

Was it about closing the labor delivery?

  Social media forums abounded Tuesday with requests for advice stemming from a screenshot of a memo saying that Landstuhl Regional Medical Center’s services for labor and delivery were suspended until further notice.


  The closure is “due to the hospital’s primary objective,” according to the memo, which was signed by Lt. Col. Elizabeth Gelner, a doctor with the OB/GYN clinic at Landstuhl.


  Although the primary objective is not specified, Landstuhl serves as a critical hub and evacuation point for U.S. service members wounded in training or combat operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. [0]

I saw this message spread like a wild fire in the osint sphere 2 week ago.

Already told me war with Iran is going bad. Hell to the point that even John "we need to attack Iran now" Bolton couldn't get it hard anymore at the thought of attacking Iran.

The strategists are hopefully not relying on voluntary journalism for their decision making

Americans individually are probably the most optimistic people in the world. The optimism might be myopically fixed on getting a promotion or winning the lottery or breaking the plate spinning world record. But if you don’t have some big project or self improvement scheme then many people (and most traditionally successful people) will give you a wide berth. People without big dreams might as well have already kicked the bucket.

Regardless of the government this culture is infectious. I think of Nikes famous tagline “Just do it” probably describes America better than any anthem or crusty document.

"Independent" is not a binary achievement. It's a continuous, multi-dimensional scale.

This article is about a move in one direction (away from independence) on that scale.

I grew up reading the Stars and Stripes (before the www existed). A few decades back it was a decent summary of news, at least. It ran a page of headlines from across the US with state-local news. It carried a range of opinion writers. And did its own reporting in addition to syndicating AP and other news streams. Had the requisite comics and satirists. It was like a smaller version of the old USA Today papers. Kinda like the current The Week publication, but daily.

We elected them. A lot of us are vociferously defending them.

What does that say about us?

Percy Shelley's poem Ozymandias plays in my head every time I see another short-sighted action by this administration that will cause long-term damage to our Republic:

  > And on the pedestal, these words appear:
  > "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
  > Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
  >
  > Nothing beside remains.

> The actions of this administration are positively communist (in the most cynical, fear-mongered notion about communism), from enlisting tech execs in the military, to demanding complete control over all commerce (including demanding ownership stakes), to absolute chilling control over speech.

It is more fascist than communist. The communist way would have been to make the state take control of companies and then put apparatchiks at the top. This is the other way around, with companies taking over the state instead. But yeah, it’s nitpicking at this point.

It is mind boggling how so many people in the US are STILL supporting Trump. Like, do you not have eyes? All those movies about evil people gaining power with nonsensical support from the population were actually just telling the truth. Humans in aggregate are not capable of managing themselves.

> The actions of this administration are positively communist (in the most cynical, fear-mongered notion about communism)

I understand from which cultural context this “communist” label comes, but in political science it’s called “authoritarian”. Small but important correction.

They probably expected it to be independent when it was created and funded to be independent…

A free press is one of the core tenets of a democracy. The government supporting that was not just unremarkable, before the current regime it was expected. This is not normal. Nobody in this administration is normal, and none of then seem to actually want to live in a democratic society.

Stars and Stripes has existed for 165 years and has been run independently (despite DoD funding) for all of that time.

Is it shocking that this is changing under Trump? I guess not, but that isn't because this is a normal state of affairs, it is because the US is rapidly sliding into full blown authoritarianism.