The amount of upcharge on anything wedding or funeral related is honestly insane nowadays. Want to rent a space for a party? Sure, that’ll be 2000 euros. Renting the same space for a wedding? Sure, that’ll be 5000 euros, catering not included. Ridiculous.

This. Countries around the world could save SO much money if they stopped subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. But no, better increase the tax on the middle class…

And will then most likely proceed not doing that. The current dems are a punch of wimps who bow to the corporate interests, just like the republicans.

This is not a smart thing to do.

Sounds very on brand for him then. I’ve given up on expecting there to be an end to this, I think it will just go on and on and on until Trump gets kicked out of office (and then some more because Dems are just as eager about this war and sucking off Bibi).

Yeah, the fossil fuel lobbying definitely paid off for those companies. They really should start moving some of those subsidies into electricity and electric cars / sustainable public transport. There’s no reason not to. Battery tech is basically at the point that 95% of people could drive electrically with some minor adjustments so why not give it some more incentives?

We’re slowly getting to the point where they’re get too greedy and moving past that critical mass point. I think Trumps presidency really turbo charged the idiocy.

While that’s true, he was still miles better than most other recent presidents.

Well I have been hearing them complain more about it being more difficult to make ends meet. Perhaps that’ll finally make them rethink their political stance.

I agree with that sentiment, shame I’m not actually from the US. My in-laws are but they’re (allegedly) too disconnected from politics to care. I still feel like they might be closeted Trumpers that don’t want to openly say so but who knows.

Ah yes, the Schumer classic.

While I agree with the sentiment, I’m not sure if the current democrats have enough of a spine to oust the sitting president, even if they get enough of a majority…

Yeah I’m not sure what this is supposed to achieve. If they both block all traffic then nothing will get out? I don’t think much was getting through before anyway.

I agree, but I also think Trump isn’t the biggest danger here. Mr Adolf Bibi is way more dangerous and Trumps biggest problem is that he’s supporting him. Trump basically does whatever Bibi says and that could end up being catastrophic.

I mean, both sides are still continuing to shoot at each other so I’d say the cease-fire has failed before it even started. The west is hoping the strait will be reopened and is basically only talking about the cease-fire and not how the attacks back and forth are still ongoing.

When I saw Iran’s statement last night it mostly read as them being snarky and sarcastic. I don’t understand how the news here seems to think it’s all solved now.

I think what you’re describing here is the best case scenario (if he would drop one). The worst case scenario (the one I’m most worried about) is that other (adversarial) nuclear powers react to the US launching one by launching their own, aimed at either the US, Israel or (worst of all) somewhere unrelated, like someplace in Europe or on Kiev.

happily vote for the next Trump

You mean Trump himself? There’s no chance in hell he wouldn’t try to run again if he hasn’t kicked the bucket by then.

It’s pretty unlikely he’ll make it until then and if he does die I’m not sure who will be his successor (definitely not charisma black hole JD) but if not then he’s too proud to give anyone else a chance.

Germany has a lot of plug-in solar for balconies (Balkonkraftwerke) and it’s available at very cheap prices (example here). I know it only provides up to 800W on a very sunny day but that’s still a significant amount for an apartment. And the beauty of these is that they are so plug-and-play, everything is included. You hang it, connect the cables and plug it into a socket and then you’re done.

I live in the Netherlands but I’ve been seriously considering picking up one of these if my building HoA doesn’t want to do a rooftop solar project for our building.

There are people in the Netherlands that have the system you describe. This is pretty rare though due to the massive push for new energy meters that’s been going on for the last 10 years or so. And with good reason: lots of the old meters people had were pretty unsafe and unreliable. For most people, having automatic usage reports going to both them and the electricity provider far outweighs the downsides.

Most of us are in a similar situation as Germany. We have smart meters that allow you to provide power back to the grid and this is currently very profitable. However, from 2027 onwards they are (mostly) getting rid of the profits this brings the consumer, in order to make the grid more stable and also for other, less clear (most likely energy company and government spending related) reasons.

As someone who’s worked in the grid provider field for a bit I’m not necessarily against this change; peak power surges due to lots of people selling of their excess solar power production is a huge problem that’s making the energy transition that much more difficult. Even in local grids, we’re starting to have to use massive power cables to be able to handle this. This brings with it a lot of extra costs and permit nonsense, making the life of the grid manager that much more difficult.

I wish people would take this upcoming deadline to start electrying more things in their house. But if my parents are anything to go by, all they’ll do is complain about losing their golden goose that they’ve profited from for over 10 years. They could get an electric car instead of their nonsense plug-in hybrid, they could electrify their heating needs, they could install a home battery and so much more. I know it costs money to do so but you basically run all of it for free most of the year. And besides that, with all the current global issues that are going on the reliance on fossil fuels should be phased out rapidly.

I can’t wait for it to crash and burn, this bubble is getting so ridiculous.

Let’s see how long it takes before he gets another pardon and a government position.