PBS is primarily (85%) privately funded. It will continue to produce shows like Masterpiece, Nova, Frontline, and Sesame Street and people in places like Boston or Philadelphia will continue to benefit from them.

What public funding does is give viewers in poorer, more rural areas access to the same information that wealthy cities enjoy. It pays for access for people who don't have it.

By opting out, Arkansas public broadcasting saves 2.5 million dollars in dues, sure. But it loses access to about $300 million dollars in privately funded programming annually.

He is criticizing an evil regime for doing evil things, but that doesn't mean he is entirely innocent or pure in his motivations. I trust China exactly as far as I can throw it, but it is entirely possible that both (a) China is unfairly prosecuting this guy and advising him off things he didn't do and (b) he used his government position to help his family before he retired. The paragraph I quoted strongly suggests that (b) is true.

From TFA:

It sounds a lot like how US Congresscritters such as Debbie Wasserman Schultz make bank (142% return in 2024!) by trading stocks in companies that are regulated by their committees: it's obviously crooked and based on having insider information, but difficult to prove.

Which part of the article triggered you to complain about "trumpistan"? Was it this one?

Or maybe that IBM was selling that surveillance software to China before 2017?

Seriously, the idea that we know all the practically important physics there is is the kind of thing only somebody who's never done science or engineering would believe.

Industrial R&D is important, but it is in a distrant third place with respect to importance to US scientific leadership after (1) Universities operating with federal grants and (2) Federal research institutions.

It's hard to convince politicians with a zero sum mentality that the kind of public research that benefits humanity also benefits US competitiveness. The mindset shows in launching a new citizenship program for anyone who pays a million bucks while at the same time discouraging foreign graduate students from attending universtiy in the US or even continuing their university careers here. On average each talented graduate student admitted to the US to attend and elite university does way more than someone who could just buy their way in.

Where would we deport them to?

That will just mean media is no longer produced in New York.

Our voting system does not know the difference. It explicitly states: silence == consent. Yes, for a human, there is a difference. For a ballot, there is none.

It does not only seem so, it's right there in the description.

With not voting, you are forfeiting your right to influence the outcome. Therefore, whatever the outcome, you blindly have agreed to it. You can try to be rabulistic about it, but there is no difference in the outcome if you are not voting because you were lazy, indifferent or enthusiastic about it. All three non-votes count exactly the same: zero.

How do you prove a negative? If you have no Instagram account, how do you prove it? By not knowing your Instagram password?

How does it work then with people posting stuff in the name of organizations?

That's the "foreign agent" argument of every dictatorial regime right now.

I was paid $35 per donation, and was allowed to donate up to three times per week.

So, $105 / week or $5,460 / year.

That would be about $10k / year in 2025 dollars.

The clinic was a ten minute walk from my workplace, so I'd walk there and back on my MWF lunch breaks.