Day: July 18, 2025
Double your public broadcasting donation
I’m an NPR enthusiast. Less so PBS, which I find stodgy. But both beat the competition, broadcast and even print. Give me either one on a desert island rather than the New York Times or the Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal (news pages, not the editorials or opinions) is more competitive, both in breadth and depth.
So you’ll assume I’m upset about the Republican Congress nixing funding for public broadcasting. I’m not.
Why I’m not upset
That’s not just because the percentage of their direct funding from the Federal government is relatively small. It’s just 1% for NPR and 15% for PBS. They also get some Federal money from the local stations, which pay NPR and PBS for content.
Whatever the total, it would be far worse to continue getting these subsidies during the Trump Administration.
The MAGAtes would insist their voices increase in volume. Already I am hearing more of their nonsense, especially on NPR, than in the past. Three more years of Trump pressure would make NPR and PBS virtual mouthpieces of liars and charlatans. If I want truly independent media in today’s America, the government should not be funding them.
What to do
Both NPR and PBS have given up the “non-commercial” label and now have lots of relatively low-key ads. I suppose they can increase corporate funding if they allow higher profile corporate sponsorship.
I’d prefer to see more citizen support. I’ve already doubled what I regard as my considerable contribution. That won’t help much, but if others join the “double the money” effort it really would make a big difference.
So too would greater foundation contributions. Pressure on foundations from the many civil society organizations losing government money will be enormous for the next few years. But maintaining space for in-depth, honest journalism has to be a priority.
Join the movement
Even if 20% of those giving to public broadcasting double their money, a good bit of the shortfall would disappear. That will be difficult in a year in which many listeners and viewers are losing their jobs with the government. So the rest of us will need to step up.
It’s by now obvious that our democracy is at risk. Keeping a space free of lies is going to be vital to preserving it.
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The Ukraine war isn’t going well for anyone
The war in Ukraine has long since become one of attrition. Kyiv and Moscow are wearing down each other down through losses of personnel and equipment rather than decisive territorial gains. The economic warfare has also become a grinding semi-stalemate. It is time to have a look at where things stand.
On the battlefield
Russia has been advancing slowly along much of the front in eastern and southern Ukraine since November 2022:
But the advances are agonizingly slow, amounting to little in the past three months:
And the advanced come at rising cost, according to the UK Defence Ministry:
Russian equipment losses are gigantic, but they had a lot of outmoded equipment to lose. The Russians have improved their battlefield tactical drone performance. And they are raiding Ukrainian cities with increasing numbers of missiles and drones:
Ukrainian losses of personnel appear to be far lower, perhaps half the Russian number.
But Ukraine’s prewar population was less than one-third of Russia’s.
Ukraine’s equipment losses also appear to be less than half of Russia’s. NATO countries have been supplying Ukraine with a lot of advanced equipment. More important is that Ukraine has rapidly adapted its own drone technology to battlefield exigencies.
In the economy
Russia’s much larger economy has held up better than Ukraine’s over the past few years. Russia’s GDP growth has been higher, its (percentage) budget deficit lower, and its interest rates lower. But smart people think the end is near. The housing market is imploding, interest rates are rising, cargo turnover is falling, debt service is exploding:
Oppression of dissent is rising. The space for public debate is narrowing.
Bottom line
The war is not existential for Russia, but it is existential for President Putin. Economic and financial collapse would put him and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at risk. The war isn’t going well for anyone. But Russia’s small gains on the battlefield are generating to big risks at home.
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