No, he can’t really go far with his political power he’ll just get entangled into more litigation… He needs to persuade countries to sell US bonds to bring down the value of the dollar in a significant enough way for project 25 to execute. He’s chosen the hard way so why would we satisfy him by doing exactly what he expects of us? Selling bonds isn’t cashing in on them, it’s just transfering the risk to someone else, a bonds market crash would dévalue the value of the dollar at the loss of the EU, china, japan, the UK etc… Let the dollar go on a softer landing (as it’s poised to do anyway, whatever happens on the bond market) let the country get back on tracks then resume activity on the bond market once the dollar has gained back some health. Accept some losses but have the overall financial losses much lighter for EU states and financial institutions on the long term. No need for the EU suffer for stuff done by america to itself.

Why fight with european consumer prices and get people to moan against the EU or their gouvernement about price hikes? Fight with states actively pushing alternative IT services and defense industry from the EU, through advertising, through hybrid commercial war, spread rumors amongst conspiracy nuts, offer tax cuts for venture capital into EU firms. Get closer to friendlies and just turn your back to the US. Don’t engage, don’t fight. Simply ignore all carrots and sticks until the US gets out of that tantrum. Don’t dump US bonds though, make it illegal if need be, dumping bonds is just helping Trump bring down the value of the dollar, that’s a price to pay to put out that bully but it’s a temporary cost that can be recooped when you dump them strategicaly when the US economy will have to get itself out of the economic hole they are digging.

Misinformed. And it’s good on you to recognise it. It happens to all of us.

It’s a reminder that some people spew stuff for political purposes (even if they don’t need to do it with the current US administration, it faceplants by itself 24/7 without any need for faked information) .

Have a great day.

I always find it amusing that we, in the west, have sent our mining, recycling and manufacturing to China and then clutch our pearls to gasp at how huge China’s CO2 output is.

The problem isn’t only China, the problem is us all.

I think he means that Germany is a very recent country and nation (way more than the US) and was built by one of the nations it now encompasses (Prussia) invading the others under Bismarck. Before that, like Italy, what we call Germany was a mixed bag of principalities, kingdoms and free cities. The problem ,once unified, is that they kept advancing with that mindset, even when the area was no longer German compatible but German similar (Alsace, Lorraine, eastern Belgium, western Poland, Austria…) and got kicked back regularly.

A army’s value is its deterrence. Not its capacity to invade the country’s neighbours (or else, the US would have a much smaller one and spend less of its debt money into it, its neighbours being Canada and Mexico). Deterrence is what keeps the peace to pursue diplomatic and commercial actions with other countries, invasive action brings such a load of costs that even the most powerful armies have to abandon those conquests sooner or later.

Can you imagine it! It was the Russian government all along! Who could have known? A strongly worded letter is warranted! And maybe even a relocation of the 2028 regional meeting in st petersburg… WHAT now! Russia is under sanctions? Why? By whom?

The UN: at the forefront of diplomacy.

I’m a bus driver in Europe, so part of the General public, I don’t make much but I understood that if you don’t pay, you are the product and will pay more than the paid equivalent in another way (by buying shit you don’t need seen on ads). I’m not alone in this, the numbers are climbing.

So the air version of their border guard dancy thing where the challenge is who stomps the loudest wins, while random people around enjoy the ridiculous show while eating pop corn.

I’m talking about frequent vandalism of the car that amounts to extra costs to the owner of the car.

I saw that AWS also is pledging something similar.

Let all those responsible for IT in your company know that the CLOUD act, in the US, gives the government a prerogative access no matter where on earth the data is stored as long as the corporation is registered in the US, so European subsidiaries of US corporations do fall under the CLOUD act.

Don’t be surprised if you encounter recurrent tire changes and paint jobs…

Any profit is sent back to the US. Whereas if I get my food in my local burger joint, all the money stays in my country. They are also nice burgers. I understand what you are saying but right now, and maybe the next few years, we do have to remind the US, you aren’t an empire on your own. This for their brands AND their Tech services industry.

You know, games can be great tabletop too, strategic, tactical, RPG, it’s all there + you get to meet people you wouldn’t have met IRL because, like online gaming, it unites people from different walks of life. Great friendships are regularly made around gaming boards and those friends don’t need software to talk too. Yes I know, some games require figurine armies but you can always find someone who’ll be happy to lend you an army for a game and there are whole second hand armies sold.

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There’s the popular but expensive ecoflow stream,

At the other extremity this solarchoc one seems too cheap to be serious and uses zendure hardware. I’ll have to look on review sites…

( https://www.solarchoc.com/plug-and-play/209734-kit-solaire-2000w-4-panneaux-solaires-jolywood-500w-1-micro-onduleur-batterie-zendure-autoconsommation-plugplay-wallis.html )

And many many others between those 2 extremities…

They are always associated with a Linky smart meter (only meter allowed in the Country, no matter who you are subscribed to, there is only 1 nationwide grid operator and planner ). That meter is designed with home batteries, home generation in it’s design as well as utilities ability to selectively put heaters / car chargers into an eco mode if the need arises.

Oh, yeah: I think the smart Meter ( mandatory linky brand in France) can block outgoing if no incoming in it’s options. So not the fridge (but that one has thermal inertia going for it) but maybe a few led lights, maybe a small computer?

The thing is, I’ve been eyeing those solar+battery systems to save up a bit but I really don’t want to be part of the problem with grid failures.

Not the one you are replying to but I was thinking about what is now popular in Europe: instead of big solar farm, it’s more € 4 000 system with a bit more than a 1.5 KW of balcony solar, and a small 3 or 4 kw battery inside the home associated with a smart meter that doesn’t allow the current to flow back to the grid. It cannot allow for off-the-grid living but it does keep the grid safe and decentralizes energy generation. With the possibility of a call to share in case there is a catastrophic event.

I live very close to the border but on the French side, we had a tiny outage of about 1/3 of a second (but long enough to reset routers)… That’s probably why.

If we don’t save this way our public services, we allow a future intervention by the EU, and seeing what they did in Greece last time. We’re better off doing things slowly without people loosing their jobs rather than the IMF and Bruxelles cutting through our social contract.