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.

Lutnick is not Trump, he works for him and has never been impeached.

The wild thing is that we do have access to it here, there are small farms growing quality produce and heirloom varieties not available in Europe. But that's not what gets sold in supermarkets in population centers. The problem is in the middlemen and marketing, all unregulated for profit from crap.

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.

That same artist just put out a new cover with the cabinet riding a missile into the ground. Think he likes political jokes.

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.

Speaking from experience, the Epoch Times is an incredibly questionable source. They regularly publish conspiracy theories, lies, and they're owned by the Falun Gong. Every once in a while a sample issue is sent out with some factual reporting (and a conservative bias, which is fine) to get people to subscribe and fall into the really ridiculous stuff. Re: your bias site, I do not know.