aow

I agree that Schumer's political approach and public rationale is awful, but not voting for the budget would've given the Trump admin free reign to do worse on top of blaming the Democrats for it and convincing their supporters. A government shutdown would've given the executive branch more power to manipulate funding, including to things they can't touch without legal challenges otherwise. I'd rather people be able to go after them in the courts, even if they're doing awful stuff that takes longer to reverse.

This is why those senators broke with the party, because a no vote would've been performative and made the situation worse. The yes votes are mostly in states where deprogrammable independents are a meaningful part of the electorate for 2026.

You know what, you're right. Numbers have shifted since I last checked this, there's more funding from members than before 2020. The (now 30%) station contribution has less federal dollars in it checking the larger station revenue reports. It's probably around 15% without spreadsheeting it, I didn't check PBS.

Nah they get more than that, it's like 40-70% but it filters through individual member stations. This cut will be felt. Even the shift in his first term towards more corporate donations to stay afloat hurt them, badly.

For what it's worth, I could tell. Lots of people can't recognize sarcasm anymore if they aren't beaten over the head with it and an /s tag.

You're right that that's an option, but increasing the price of various goods can make them unaffordable or unappealing. I know I changed my habits as soon as eggs went over $4 a dozen.

Could be, those have a lot of international inputs in many cases though.

The perception would absolutely not be the same, and US companies are also not exempted from paying them. Most people don't understand that tariffs are taxes paid on imports, paid by those who import them. They think tariffs are magical and the money comes from foreigners.

People may start to understand if/when the price hikes start affecting them directly. For now only retirees with stock market holdings have seen a drop.

The reason that the stock market cratered in response to this was that regular consumers are about to get hit with a 25%+ price increase on literally everything they buy. If you don't make 25% more paycheck, you're going to be cutting your lifestyle by the difference. Companies know this and are anticipating major lost revenue because people won't have money to spend on their products. The price increases are probably going to be in full swing in 2-3 months, but that's an educated guess, only.

Yeah, the other side says "slow".

Looks like Reuters is saying that Israel denies hitting this facility, but they shot at a nearby Hamas rocket site. Odds are good something came from there, like the hospital Hamas accidentally struck last year. Plenty to criticize without making things up.

This torture method is a bit of a stretch...

This is a really cool project, but I can't help but wonder about the numbers. 1,400/month for a 1 bedroom when there are rentals for <1k nearby, closer to Pittsburgh proper. And the same price point will get you a place inside the city, if that's where you work.