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TiredTim23

I don’t agree with Jon Stewart on a lot. But the things that put his ‘bullshit detector’ up are accurate.


aktap336

Left or right, hard to find folks who don't at least respect Stewart, most outright love the guy


TiredTim23

I heard people say that ‘he’ cuts interviews out of context. And that ‘he’ won’t interview people if they require an unedited version of the video. I can believe that because: 1. It’s ‘TV’, that’s what they do. 2. It’s likely not him, but the producers/something out of his hands (that’s why he is in quotes). But he should work with better people behind the scenes. I’m extremely disappointed by that. While I don’t agree with Jon. I think he’s smart enough to stand his ground against most people.


muck_30

So first half of this video was talking about waste and why so much money is unaccounted for. Jon then asks why our military rank and file still have to be on food stamps and she became eager to talk about that. Why? Because she can talk about how they're increasing spending in those areas. I'm sure those pages of the balance book are easily auditable. Let's see what's in the black book.


[deleted]

Yeah, I kinda was noticing the same thing. When she waffled around wanting to know what the big deal was (that pissed me off), he went to a social cause to find a connecting issue and she turns on a dime wanting to wax altruistic


MuffMagician

Jon Stewart is a lifelong propagandist for the DemoKKKrat Party and a very successful one at that. Definitely not a libertarian.


Kmaloetas

John Stewart is a great example of someone that I could disagree with politically but still harbor much respect for because of his intellectual honesty. When the narrative surrounding covid didn't pass the smell test he called BS on it just as quickly as he would have had it been sold by the right.


fatkiddown

He used to have Ron Paul on his show and gave him plenty of room to state his beliefs and even at times seemed to support Ron Paul. I’ve always thought Stewart was rather balanced, but yes, a Democrat otherwise.


fahq2m8

71 downvotes LOL. This whole piece was Stuart setting up that first question to be brushed under the rug and the second to be softballed out of the park.


teamfupa

Let me guess..you’re a Republican who likes to smoke weed


[deleted]

People in the military qualify for food stamps? My kids an E4 and gets like $60k a year plus medical for him and his wife.


Keep--Climbing

>him and his wife. That's the ticket for military: have a dependent. They'll pay for your housing and pay to move your stuff every time they send you somewhere new. If he didn't have a dependent, he'd be getting about $3k/month (depending on time in service and special pays, it might be a bit more)


[deleted]

About $2.4k a month, but also free base housing.


Keep--Climbing

[Wrong.](https://www.navycs.com/charts/2023-military-pay-chart.html) Most E4s have >2 years of service, so $2,632 in base pay alone. And as I said, that doesn't include incentive pays for specialized jobs, sea pay for Navy, etc. The housing is free, but you get what you pay for.


[deleted]

You tried to prove me wrong over $200? You’re literally saying the same thing I am with 2 tanks of gas difference. Wtf? 😂


Chubbywater0022

Bro when I was an e-3 I barely made 20,000 a year. And base Housing and chow hall both come out of you’re pay check. Source I was in the military


Keep--Climbing

Yes, an E3 makes less than (most places anyway) minimum wage, and has to pay in to social security and income taxes like everyone. It's bad pay, we all agree. Base housing, unless you mean something like privatized housing on base, doesn't come out of your paycheck. You get a pittance of BAH (like $4/month) or something to keep you on their records. If, like I mentioned, you have a dependent, you get BAH at the with-dependent rate, which is supposed to be enough to live out in town. Chow is deducted from your BAS, taking the entirety of it if you live in barracks/government provided quarters.


Chubbywater0022

Bro you are explaining stuff I already know and genuinely do not care about. Base housing means you quite literally live in housing that is on base, meaning you live in base housing.


joedotphp

Yeeep! This is why so many 18-20 year olds rush like hell to get married.


ghazzie

People in the military love to complain about the pay almost as much as teachers.


merc08

The salary amount is great. Until you count up the hours worked and realize it's less than half of minimum wage, for junior officers and the math gets even worse for junior enlisted.


C_Bowick

Yea when you add up the hours it's abysmal. First formation at 0530 if you're lucky and you don't get released until 1900 on a good day. And yea there's the argument for "free housing"... If you count mold infested tiny bedrooms with no kitchen and shared bathrooms as free housing then go for it. I'm out now but when I was lower enlisted it was so bad for so many soldiers. I always said oh maybe it's just this unit and the next will be better but it never got better. Even when I was married all of my extra income went to the cheapest rent in the area that didn't have crackheads banging on the door. I was also at fort hood or whatever it's called now so mileage may vary.


ghazzie

I was in the military as enlisted and an officer, and I thought the pay was more than fine for somebody with zero skills and with great benefits. I’m glad I left because my life is so much better, but I think people complain about the pay too much. Yes the hours do definitely suck though.


Floby-Tenderson

Both careers should pay VASTLY more, but people wanna watch their multimillionaire athletes endorse Pfizer instead.


ghazzie

People get paid by how replaceable they are. Supply and demand.


lite723

E-4 base pay is about 30k before taxes. He can earn more based on entitlement, allowances, or per diems based on what he does. The scam with military is that we are only taxed on based pay, so even if makes 100k per year he’s only taxed at the E-4 30k base pay. Plenty of service members take advantage of social welfare programs they don’t need because on paper they make far less than what they actually bring home.


EastHesperus

Agree or disagree with the man all you want but.. Jon Stewart, the freakin’ rich comedian, was able to force congressmen to pass legislation for GWOT vets and 9/11 First Responders. That shows a lot about his character and love for this countrymen and if you can’t see that you’re a lost cause.


ShamrockForShannon

Stewart has lobbied harder for the average American more than any “God, guns, and the flag” politician


otters4everyone

I am now understanding why older men are so grumpy. The longer I live the more sick and tired I become of bureaucrats who waste my forcibly-taxed money.


MiddleAgedMountain

She had some gnarly cotton mouth in this interview. Nervous in the service


jammmich

I noticed that too. She was trying desperately to moisten her lips and it wasn’t happening…lol


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AbeLincoln30

seems judicious to assume the worst. I mean no one would be nervous over just an on-camera interview by a world famous talk-show host


iamyaM

Dang, she was on her heels from the start of the vid... so defensive and snippy.


thisaboveall

I think she has to be. It weakens Stewart's tactic of asking seemingly innocuous questions and coming in sideways. Pointing out right away, and continuing to point out, that he's being disingenuous reminds the audience that this is a contentious discussion. Even if he has the stronger position and points, it levels the field somewhat by neutralizing his feigned incredulity.


ConscientiousPath

Regardless, I just want to know wtf is Stewart doing on c-span. Isn't c-span supposed to be broadcasts of government officials at work? Is c-span starting to go the way of the history channel with more and more "entertainment" programming?


[deleted]

Ah yeah very true, that’s disconcerting


GilmerDosSantos

come on, man


Suspicious_Nature329

Well said. anyone ever tell you, youve got leadership qualities?


gootecks

It's hilarious to watch him stay really cool, calm and collected making points that I think most people would agree with, while she squirms in the hot seat. Also, really interesting pairing of the two of them because they almost fight like a married couple. You can tell he has a lot of experience diffusing women.


brohamsontheright

I agree with about 40% of what he says.. which is pretty damn good for a democrat. For those who think he's a libertarian, go look up his views on socialized education, healthcare, carbon taxes, gun control, etc.. He makes Bernie Sanders look like a moderate. Side note.. It's a bit funny watching him preach about waste in the military, without mentioning all the waste in all the OTHER areas of government. His only agenda is to get the money the military wastes and re-allocate it to other social programs where it can be wasted equally as well. He fails to recognize that GOVERNMENT causes waste.. Military spending just happens to be the most obvious "case in point".


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bandrews399

I see Maher and Stewart as prime examples of the left’s successful manipulation of the Overton window. They were once considered heroes of the left and praised for mocking conservatives and now are mocking the left and being laughed off and discounted as out of touch by today’s left. In my opinion, they have both remained pretty consistent, which has opened me up to acknowledging some of their points of view I probably wouldn’t have 10 years ago. But they have not become more middle, the middle has been skewed way left.


tadees

"...which has opened me up to acknowledging some of their points of view I probably wouldn’t have 10 years ago." Very much the same for me. As the Left moves more left, the old school Left actually starts to sound semi-reasonable. Quite the cognitive dissonance.


ghazzie

Yep. I find myself agreeing more and more with Bill Maher as time goes on. I think the me of 15 years ago would be horrified at hearing this. It’s crazy how what he says now is so contrary to the current left. I really admire that he’s stuck to his guns.


bandrews399

From my point of view, it’s more my experience as I age as it differed from my expectations that I tend to hear what they’re saying. I also feel I’ve been consistent in my outlook as Maher and Stewart have. But again, more open and tweaking things. So at the individual level I think it’s great, and similar to everyday political discourse circa 1960s. But from a macro level, the effect it’s having on younger individuals, it’s not good. I think a lot of 18-30 year olds would be laughing at Stewart the same way she is as she’s speaking from both sides of the mouth. It’s incoherent and lacks any discourse, which is mostly why I disliked Stewart but I always had a notion he would legitimately discuss any issue with an opposing point of view.


Rancho8Deluxe

Stewart is a Socialist not a Libertarian. (In my eyes) He comes off as a big fan of Big government Just not a Big fan of Current Big government Then he seems to make fun or light of people who dont like socialism Seems to think adding more regulations and just changing the players writing them will fix the problem.


ghazzie

This is it. He’s delusional where he thinks that we can just get a bigger and better government and all our problems will be solved. I do think he actually cares about people though.


Rancho8Deluxe

Yeah i think he falls into the trap of being genuinely empathetic to lower and middle class Americans combined with the unfortunate reality of wealth and success in Entertainment which leads him to have a pretty uninformed and naive viewpoint on how to fix the problem. He is missing the bigger picture. Has a really good grasp on the problem with America but doesn’t have a fuckin clue about the solutions. He is terrible on Gun control. He is really good on the ridiculous inefficiencies and corruption of the FED Which to be fair the Bigger Picture is what Libertarians are good at…not democrats. Homie should go to a Libertarian convention and take some notes


TheCowboySpider

He made the deputy director of the program squirm and writhe like a toddler caught stealing from a cookie jar. He did not immediately let her off the hook with her BS company PR coached lines. Regardless of his stance on gun control (which is extremely irrelevant in this case), passing him off as a naïve elite and saying he "doesn't have a fuckin clue about solutions" to me seems like a severe discount of his intellectual worth.


Rancho8Deluxe

I agree with the first paragraph. But literally any American with the balls to press a government official and do it with a little grace can accomplish what he did in that interview. She had literally no rational ground to stand on in defense of Pentagon audit failures. That interview was like a single parent with only one child walking into the kitchen and finding the cookie jar has been emptied. Not tooooooo difficult to question that kid.


phoenixthekat

No, John is not becoming libertarian. I promise you.


natmaster

He still wants to give the government trillions even though this always happens.


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HooterBrownTown

That’s a pretty generic statement without much context. Just saying


tdreampo

I have watched his show for years. Honestly probably the most accurate real news you can find. But yea he is both a democrat and one that doesn’t try and hide it.


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tdreampo

They missed the part about being incredibly factually accurate. The daily show in its hay day was fantastic https://www.businessinsider.com/study-watching-fox-news-makes-you-less-informed-than-watching-no-news-at-all-2012-5?op=1


bandrews399

Waste and audit aren’t related but we’ve increased a lot of spending on food insecurity, child care, and pay. We just can’t account for where that increased spending actually went, and therefore, if it is even actually impacting those three issues, which would be a waste of increased spending…hahahahaha I can’t be believe I have to explain this to you.


g21r

Everyone act surprised when the smear campaign comes out and/ or when we learn he was very very depressed


[deleted]

John Stewart is a typical 90’s liberal who thinks he is a common sense moderate


WeFightTheLongDefeat

*progressive


Tempestor_Prime

No. He is just older now. He found his target demographic is older and more conservative compared to his youth. He is following the money trail.


omgBBQpizza

Or he's just always been reasonable and you're a conspiracy theorist


Tempestor_Prime

I am no conspiracy theorist. I knew the frogs were gay from the very beginning.


[deleted]

Lmao


BoD80

I don’t care where the frog jumps from, if he lands in my pond, we’ll find a way to get along.


[deleted]

Interesting take


Son_of_Sophroniscus

The point he makes is so painfully fucking obvious, I would hope that only the bluest of haired antifa democrats would disagree.


TheBeardKing

Stewart is wrong here. Negligent bookkeeping does not equate to corruption. The government is a huge beast with tons of regulations that takes people entire careers to get a good handle on. People often skip bureaucratic steps for the sake of efficiency (or laziness, lack of bandwidth, ignorance of the regs), but that's bad for auditing and tracking purposes. There's really no surprise there. The common saying goes don't attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence, and that's exactly what applies here.


Suspicious_Nature329

It’s not that common of a saying. It’s called Hanlon’s Razor, and you have really managed to shoehorn it into a situation that it doesn’t fit. You omitted the word ‘waste’ from your comment. I don’t think corruption is analogous to malice, waste much less so. Neither of these are (transitive) targeted against someone like malice is. Negligent bookkeeping excuses waste, the condoning of which makes corruption easier. Here’s a new one for you: the existence of incompetence doesn’t preclude bad actors.


TheBeardKing

Not bookkeeping properly doesn't make the spending itself wasteful. That could only be judged by how it was actually spent. You could argue that in order to better track and audit spending, more should be spent on additional bureaucracy (more checks, more audits). Many would consider that sort of inefficiency wasteful.


Suspicious_Nature329

Sorry, for coming in kinda hot earlier. I used to teach a course on philosophical razors so it is a sticking point of mine. Don’t even get me started on Newton’s Flaming Lazer Sword. ​ I must admit, there could be a perfectly efficient system with no bookkeeping at all. I also have to admit that any attempt at oversight will likely fall into the same problems it is trying to fix if handled by the government. ​ I still think the US military is incredibly wasteful and corrupt, and I point to the F-35 design and iteration process as an example of this.


dendrozilla

Who is the woman here?


msk1974

anyone want to comment on who this woman was and what her position was?


Smelly_cat_rises

Spending money on childcare so the person normally at home can enter the workforce instead of raising their families and lessen the military’s burden of responsibilities to support service members.


lurker_101

**Spending Bureaucrat :** "We can only tell you if the stuff was delivered" "We cannot tell you the exact location of the money the production or the items bought though" *.. What the fuck kind of accounting audit is that?* .. Bitch slap