MgoHillbilly

September 1st, 2020 at 6:52 PM ^

The very last thing any business should cut is staff imho.  I know that's not technically smartest in terms of what's best for business, but at the same time, if they can be retained for a couple of million each year, do your absolute best to keep them on no matter what. People are people, not beans to be counted.  This coming from an econ major and small business owner. 

Joined: 01/04/2017

MGoPoints: 24290

FreddieMercuryHayes

September 2nd, 2020 at 9:35 AM ^

Come on man, the athletic department is the private sector in all but name.  How much of the UM budget is public?  Like 15%?  It's basically a private institution already.  And the athletic department does not take money from the academic side since it's such a huge self-sufficent entity itself.  It is non-profit in the way that private hospitals are "non-profit".  It's main goal is to keep making money for itself like most other buisnesses out there.  The grand goals of betterment of the 'student' athlete of yesteryear are long gone in today's big time college athletics and you know it.

Joined: 12/29/2010

MGoPoints: 40860

blizzardo

September 1st, 2020 at 3:46 PM ^

Bah, I've been told repeatedly that I'm selfish for wanting football/open society regardless of how its impacting other people's lives. Am I supposed to feel pity here? Remorse? Remember all lives are equal. But some are more equal than others.

Joined: 12/11/2011

MGoPoints: 527

drjaws

September 1st, 2020 at 4:39 PM ^

All lives are equal unless your opinion doesn’t fit the readers political leanings. Regardless of what this leanings are.  Then those lives don’t matter.  In fact, nothing counts or matters unless it fits the readers political leanings, and, god forbid, if it doesn’t, it is to be summarily eliminated (whatever the “it” is).

At least this is what I’ve been able to figure out from reading this new MGoCOVIDandPolitics blog that used to be about cool things like sports and “what are you drinking/cooking/smoking”

Joined: 02/26/2014

MGoPoints: 46778

mackbru

September 1st, 2020 at 6:31 PM ^

This may be the dumbest example of false equivalency I’ve seen. BLM doesn’t mean mean white lives don’t. It’s like saying Cancer Patients Matter means leukemia patients don’t. Black people just want equality, People who oppose them do not. Are you really that simple? 

Joined: 09/01/2009

MGoPoints: 34145

Hail Harbo

September 1st, 2020 at 6:48 PM ^

All people are equal in this country, to include black people.  Don't think so?  Cite the laws and regulations that make it not so. 

And yes, BLM does mean white lives don't matter.  Have you not been listening, or are you simply so obtuse not to recognize the overarching theme?  White's must kneel and bow their heads when commanded.  Whites must chant, "Black Lives Matter" with a raised fist, when commanded.  Whites are the scourge of society and unless a white person submits to the BLM agenda*, they are thus known as a fascist and can be executed on the spot.

*This is the public BLM agenda, the softly spoken but the deeper underlying meaning is to use BLM as the front for a Marxist revolution.

Joined: 06/18/2015

MGoPoints: 13428

Jon06

September 1st, 2020 at 7:36 PM ^

I know you're too stupid to understand this, Hail Harbo, but the regulations in question are pretty simple to identify. Legal standards for the use of force are subjective, in that they're based on whether or not officers are afraid. Some officers are more easily scared by some people than others. That's enough for inequality under the law, and it has deadly consequences that we've seen time and time again.

Joined: 09/19/2009

MGoPoints: 15306

Sam1863

September 2nd, 2020 at 7:39 AM ^

I've been told repeatedly that I'm selfish for wanting football/open society regardless of how its impacting other people's lives.

Gee, I can't imagine why they'd think you were selfish.

But you remind me of a poster I once saw. It was a picture of the Earth, with the caption: "This is the world. If you look closely, you'll see that you are not the center of it."

Joined: 04/27/2014

MGoPoints: 28893

trueblueintexas

September 2nd, 2020 at 1:00 AM ^

The U.S could cut defense spending in half and we would still spend over $100B more per year than the next closest country. Minus China, defense spending in every other country in the world combined does not equal what the U.S spends.

Within the U.S, if you take out Medicaid and Medicare, the budgets for all other Federal Departments combined does not equal the Department of Defense budget. 

China has made significant military gains, but it is not because they are suddenly investing more than the U.S. The DoD had a financial audit and failed miserably. There is significant mis-management and prioritization of resources which would save tax payers hundreds of billions annually if fixed. 

Joined: 11/10/2008

MGoPoints: 36653

1VaBlue1

September 2nd, 2020 at 9:02 AM ^

All of what you say is true, except for the final result.  Do you really think that cutting the budget would result in better management, prioritization, elimination of redundancy, and huge savings?  I sure hope you don't think that.  Because it wouldn't.  It would result in the same management, priorities, redundancy, and expenses that currently exist - only with half the money available.  It would make things far worse in the military than Carter enabled with his cuts.

IMO, the one thing we need to do as a start to better money management, as a country, is to overhaul/replace the governments financial agencies.  There are something like 23 different agencies that the Defense Travel System (DTS) works with, and they are all run differently, have different SW, different processes/procedures, and different program requirements.  Within the DTS Program Mgmt Office, we tried to upgrade the entire system to use Concur.  After ~one year of working towards that goal, including SW prototypes and DTMO travel policy updates, Concur said 'no thanks'.  The Gov't financial system is, straight up, not compatible with current technology.  Yeah, it works with credit cards and whatnot, only because of one-off APIs with each provider.

Upgrade the country's financial management system, and we can begin to identify redundancies and efficiencies.  Short of that, you're just going to be spitting into the wind.

(Background: I used to manage the DTS PMO support contract - the contractors that handle most of the contract administration and direct oversight of the development contractors, so I have a fairly good understanding of how DTS works.  BTW, for those that may not know, the DTS handles travel arrangements and payments for all DoD personnel - incl the Sect of Def and all Intel Comm travel.)

Joined: 01/31/2016

MGoPoints: 127087