Grumpy Editor

U.S. MILITARY FAILS TO GET FUNDS FOR A NEEDED BOOST

Grumpy Editor notes a Wall Street Journal piece focusing on “America’s Declining Military.”

In citing the Pentagon is seeking $773 billion for fiscal 2023, the Journal points out, "the 298-ship Navy would buy only nine ships next year while retiring 24.  The fleet would shrink to 280 ships in 2027, even as the Navy says it needs a fleet of 500 to defeat China in a conflict.”

As for the Army, the Journal mentions it is seeking $177.5 billion, "barely up from $174.7 billion last year and a cut after inflation,” adding “end strength would fall to 473,000 from the 485,000 authorized last year. The Army shrugs because it hasn’t been able to fill all its spots in a hot labor market.  This may relieve a recruiting headache for some general, but it won’t reduce the threats the Army may have to address in multiple theaters."

Turning to the Air Force, the Journal says it "is now the smallest, oldest and least ready it has ever been in its 75-year history...but the Pentagon plans to cut its buy of F-35 fighter jets this year." 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

NUMBER OF MEDIA WORKERS DECLINES.  There were 39,080 news analysts, reporters and journalists employed in the U.S. in May, 2021. This is down from 41,580 in the prior May and 44,100 in May, 2019, with average annual wage of $63,230 in May 2021, down from $66,000 the year prior.    

 

MORTGAGE LOAN RATE RISES.  Mortgage giant Freddie Mac says average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage loan rises to 4.67 percent, highest since December, 2018.

 

SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA HIT SEAFOOD.  New rounds of economic sanctions on Russia make key seafood species such  as cod and crab harder to come by, along with alcohol and diamonds.  

 

NIELSEN BEING ACQUIRED.  Nielsen, the New York-based media measurement company with annual global revenue of about $3.5 million, is being acquired for $16 billion, including debt.  Data collected by Nielsen is a major factor in determining where billions in advertising dollars are spent each year.

 

L.A. BANS NEW OIL WELLS.  The Los Angeles City Council votes unanimously to ban new oil wells and phase out existing ones, a move leaders in the nation's second-most populous city call essential for health reasons.  A city commission will study how to phase out more than 5,200 existing oil and gas wells.

 

BLACK NEWS CHANNEL CLOSES.  The Black News Channel, first all-day news network aimed at African Americans, closes a little more than two years after it went live.

 

COIN MYSTERY.  Quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies are in short supply again.  While some will call it the great coin shortage of 2022, America is facing a coin circulation problem.

 

Book: Presidential perks reach $1.4 billion a year

Major U.S. media refrain from mentioning the extent of aircraft operations linked to President Barack Obama, thus most taxpayers are unaware of the $419 million annual cost associated with that activity reported in a new book, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Author John F. Groom gives a rundown on “presidential perks” in “The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man: Costs of the Obama White House.” 

Annual cost to operate the growing presidential aircraft fleet is $44 million, finds Groom.  Add to that $75 million in salary costs for the “presidential airlift squadron” and $300 million for the presidential helicopter fleet. 

Few taxpayers (and editors, too) are aware that 31 helicopters are in the presidential fleet now, a figure Groom unveils. 

Ground transportation for the president runs $2.2 million, while vacations cost $20 million, tallies the author. 

"One of the most important things to note about the $1.4 billion figure is that it specifically does not include the cost of running the White House’s policy operations," writes Groom.  "The $1.4 billion is money that is directly related to the president and his family."

That sum pays for staffing, housing, transportation and entertaining.

Groom points out an Obama “date night” in flying to New York City, including dinner and a show, costs taxpayers $1 million.

“We need to return to the idea of the president as first citizen --- a very important person, but not a deity,” Groom writes in the book.

The president and his administration “should run their lives as examples to the nation, with frugality and simplicity, at least until the huge institution they run, the United States government, returns to some degree of solvency,” adds the author.

Obama media Wednesday: Are we in Sin City or N.Y. City?

Media who trail President Barack Obama, as he travels around on Air Force One, face multiple time zone disorientation, sagging sleep and deadline disorder, reminds Grumpy Editor. 

So they have to be a pretty sturdy bunch. 

Look at Wednesday's schedule. 

After an overnight stay in Las Vegas, with casino slot machines and table games distractions, foggy-eyed media were up early for a morning campaign rally at a North Las Vegas high school. 

There, in a 26-minute speech on education, the president declared, “I’m standing here as president because I had a bunch of great teachers.  Teachers matter.  They’re on the front lines of our future.” 

After media filed his remarks, it was back to Air Force One and across the country and time zones to New York City for a basketball-flavored fundraising dinner. 

The “Obama Classic,” as it was labeled, cost $20,000 a person.  About 120 people, including basketball stars, attended the event --- hosted by Michael Jordan --- at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. 

"It is very rare that I come to an event where I'm like the fifth or sixth most interesting person," he joked, after an introduction by Jordan. 

But the best photo op of the day was shuttered to the press.  The president later changed to gym clothes to shoot hoops. 

Then it was back to Air Force One.

U.S. buys Russian helicopters for Afghanistan’s air force

Despite cries for more U.S. jobs, one of the strangest deals has American taxpayers footing the bill for almost two dozen Russian-built helicopters for use by the Afghanistan air force, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Other than Bloomberg News three months ago and this week’s issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, little has been reported by U.S. media about the unusual transaction.

Newspaper editorial page writers should get somewhat excited over this, especially during the summer doldrums.  

Bloomberg Businessweek writers Danielle Ivory and Kathleen Miller point out, “Since May 2011, the Pentagon has paid Rosoboronexport $411 million for 21 Mi-17 helicopters.” 

Rosoboronexport is the state-run arms trader that Congress says is arming Syria. 

Kazan Helicopter manufactures the medium twin-turbine transport at two Russian plants. 

The Bloomberg Businessweek writers also reveal the “Pentagon didn’t solicit bids from any other company for the helicopters.” They add that Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) --- leading 17 U.S. senators seeking to cancel the deal --- says the no-bid order “seems just plain stupid.” 

Back on May 8, Bloomberg News writers Tony Capaccio and David Lerman reported, "The Pentagon says it’s in a bind, with nowhere to turn for helicopters needed by Afghanistan’s air force except Russia."

The Mi-17 choppers, they added, "include full Western avionics, navigation, communications and situation-awareness capability.” 

Cost of the 21 helicopters three months ago was pegged at $375 million.  That’s $36 million below the price tag noted this month. 

What’s noteworthy about this close to half a billion dollar Pentagon-spurred deal that benefits Russia is that talk in Washington includes deep cuts in the defense budget --- for the U.S.

 

Los Angeles braces for another ‘Obamajam’ today

Anyone notice the workout Air Force One is getting these days in shuttling President Barack Obama around the U.S., asks Grumpy Editor. 

Media in the entourage are having a difficult time figuring out what state they are in.

Last Friday the Boeing 747 flew the president to Minneapolis and Chicago for six fundraisers in one day.

On Monday the commander in chief appeared in New York. 

Today, after two fundraisers in San Francisco, the 747 flies to Los Angeles in Obama’s second visit to L.A. in less than a month for an evening gay and lesbian community fundraiser in Beverly Hills. 

Then tomorrow morning he heads for a breakfast in Los Angeles’ View Park neighborhood, called the “black Beverly Hills,” where more than 80 percent of residents are African-American and the median income is $85,000 a year. 

Both of the Los Angeles area events are expected to cause “Obamajams,” a recently-coined word in the City of Angels for messed-up traffic, irritating motorists, triggered by presidential motorcades causing street closures and traffic delays. 

Then the 747 is off to Las Vegas where Obama speaks mid-day tomorrow in an indoor arena at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. 

The UNLV appearance marks the president’s fourth visit to Nevada this year.

 

Obama hustles to North Korea border for photo op

Within hours of Air Force One’s landing in South Korea, President Barack Obama --- sensing a photo op with the presidential election less than eight months away --- was peering through binoculars toward North Korea yesterday in his first visit to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which has bisected the peninsula since the Korean War cease fire almost 59 years ago, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Chances are North Koreans had binoculars trained on the president who wore an identification badge reading:  Barack Obama, Commander in Chief. 

Reuters said Obama “spent about 10 minutes on a viewing platform at the DMZ, talking with some of the soldiers on guard as the flags of the United States, South Korea and the United Nations flapped loudly in the brisk, cold wind.” 

With print and broadcast media trailing his movements, the president visited the DMZ on the eve of a global summit on nuclear security hosted by South Korea. 

“You guys are at freedom's frontier," Obama told about 50 troops crammed into a dining hall at a U.S. camp near the DMZ, one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers. 

The Korean War remains open ended with no peace treaty signed. Battles ended with a cease fire on July 27, 1953.  

The Korean War, also labeled the “forgotten war,” erupted when 135,000 communist North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea in pre-dawn hours of June 25, 1950. 

For the U.S., the war resulted in 36,940 military deaths, 103,000 wounded, 8,142 missing in action and 3,746 prisoners of war.  

Prolonging the war were entries of communist Chinese soldiers battling U.S. troops on the ground and Russian pilots in Soviet-built jets fighting U.S. airmen.

Chinese troops killed or captured thousands of U.S. military personnel and managed many prisoner of war camps in North Korea. 

Obama was threatening to cancel planned U.S. food aid to North Korea following its announcement that it plans to launch a long-range rocket next month.

 

Sexy, pesky fruit flies get 'buzz' with alcohol-laced chow

One of the year’s strangest stories --- and space chewers --- to make some front pages over the weekend dealt with (ready for this?) sex life of fruit flies, observed Grumpy Editor. 

It also indicated how University of California, San Francisco, researchers are spending valuable tax dollars in a financially-smacked state. 

Fruit flies normally are attracted to ripened or fermenting fruits and vegetables.  And spotting them shake up produce inspectors, especially in California. 

Associated Press writer Malcolm Ritter gobbled up information based on material in Science magazine that involved a study of fruit flies that could shed light “on the biology of alcohol abuse.” 

The story detailed how fruit flies were studied after being put into containers with a just-mated female.  Then the rejected insects were placed in vials and given a choice of regular food or alcohol-laced chow.  “They consistently went for the alcohol more than did the male flies that had just mated,” Ritter reported. 

The story also cited researchers paired thousands of other male flies with dead virgin females, “so they didn’t experience rejection but didn’t have sex either.” 

Wow! 

With newspapers' editorial space getting tighter and considering readers’ increasing interest in the shaky economy, job creation, the conflict in Afghanistan, taxes being pushed, growing use of Air Force One for fund raising, the upcoming election and weird weather appearing around the country, how fruit flies made front pages --- or even the funny pages --- was simply weird.

 

Air Force One flies in West as federal funds near empty

With the spotlight on cutting costs a central issue in Washington, Grumpy Editor wonders how many newspaper editorial page writers this week will focus on the continued extraordinary use of Air Force One for travel to distant fund raisers and political rallies --- as funds to run the federal government neared empty.

A government shutdown was averted last night via a Senate compromise that, with House ratification next week, will provide federal funding until Nov. 18.

During the Washington cliffhanger, President Barack Obama was making West Coast rounds with an itinerary that took him to Seattle on Sunday, and yesterday to San Francisco area cities, then onward to La Jolla and the Los Angeles area.

His western travel concludes today in Denver with a speech to supporters.

All this while a dispute over spending pointed to a possible government shutdown this weekend and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) running out of disaster relief funds. 

Congress also must pass a bill to fund government for the fiscal year that starts on Saturday.

A newsman’s tally of Obama’s use of Air Force One last year shows the president flew a lofty 172 times on the jumbo Boeing 747. 

Air Force-estimated per-flight-hour using a 747 costs taxpayers $181,757. 

In addition, there are helicopter trips and multiple-car use with an entourage on the ground.

 

Despite ban, photo of Obama at Dover AF Base released

A White House-distributed photo showing President Barack Obama saluting on the Dover Air Force Base tarmac during a Tuesday ceremony on the return of the remains of 30 American troops killed in a weekend helicopter crash in Afghanistan, came as a surprise to the Pentagon, notes Grumpy Editor.

The photo, with others standing by the president, was shot in silhouette mode by a White House photographer.

It was distributed despite the Pentagon’s claim that any public depiction of the event would violate wishes of the bereaved families, Associated Press reported.

Under a Pentagon policy set two years ago, media coverage of returning military dead at Dover is allowed only when family members approve.

Because 19 of the 30 families of the deceased had objected to media coverage of the remains coming off a plane at Dover, the Pentagon said no images could be taken.

The Pentagon did not know the White House photographer was present and had no idea a photo of the event was being released until it became public, said Doug Wilson, head of public affairs at the Pentagon, AP pointed out.

Wilson said photographers who routinely travel with the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were not allowed to go to the event and no official Pentagon photos were taken or released.

Nevertheless, in addition to wide distribution, the White House Web site posted the image as “Photo of the Day.”

 

Memorial Day remembers fallen American troops

Today’s observance means more than backyard barbecues and store sales, reminds Grumpy Editor who is taking the day off.

Originally called Decoration Day, many people observe Memorial Day by visiting memorials and especially Veterans Administration national cemeteries where commemorative events honor American men and women who died in service during wartime periods.

 

Mention of Obama’s 10-day Asia trip cost triggers chatter

While mention of the cost and scope of President Barack Obama’s 10-day, four-nation Asia tour has been all over the Web and the subject of discussions on some radio talk shows, key U.S. media have ignored any hint of the extent or expenditures connected with the enormous operation, finds Grumpy Editor.

Press Trust of India put the price tag at $200 million a day.

The premier news agency of India attributed that figure to “a top official of the Maharashtra government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit.”

The price tag was picked up by India Times, part of India's largest media and entertainment house, The Times Group, a 168-year-old operation, and New Delhi Television, along with other information illustrating the extent of the Obama and entourage tour.  NDT is considered the most watched and the most respected news network in India.

The $200 million figure also was worked into a story in Britain’s Daily Mail.

When a Washington reporter sought confirmation of that cost at a State Department briefing Friday, a spokesman appeared unaware of that figure making the rounds worldwide.

Washington later shot down that lofty figure but refused to revise the cost --- or provide an estimate.

The India “invasion” included the use of a number of U. S. military aircraft before and during the journey.

Also involved, according to India media:  34 U.S. Navy ships for patrol duty in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai on India’s west coast, six armored vehicles, three Marine One helicopters, 45 other vehicles, food and lodging in the five-star 560-room and 44-suite seaside Taj Mahal Palace & Tower and three other hotels to accommodate up to 3,000 people ranging from White House staffers to Secret Service agents --- and 30 sniffer dogs.

Bill O’Reilly on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor on Friday labeled the reported expenditures “bogus,” without touching on the size of the entourage or any hint of costs for land, air and sea forces and supplies, for the 10-day journey with other stops in Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.

Chris Matthews on Hardball Friday on MSNBC felt mention of the cost --- being shouldered by U.S. taxpayers amid increasing cries for federal belt tightening --- was “disparaging to our president.”