TWeaK

Solar is already being installed anywhere they can. Getting a connection to the grid isn’t that easy, and often requires paying for the transmission and distribution upgrades needed - which also get implemented on a timescale to suit the grid operator, ie in no rush, whenever they’re good and ready.

Battery storage wouldn’t last long enough and would require a much larger footprint than turbine generators. However the turbines are more expensive to run than importing from the grid - they’re for security of supply, not for constant operation (although I’m sure they’d happily run them if no grid connection was available).

Point being I don’t think there is a practical option where data centres could export to the grid - they already install solar on the roof, and it isn’t that big of an area (big solar farms take up a ton of space). With wind turbines you have to worry about ice throw, so they can’t be too close. Whatever option it’s basically a separate installation with its own land acquirement and planning permission needs.

Annoyingly, getting a 2/3 majority would be easier in Congress.

Yes, but that’s even worse as it requires more Republican representatives to flip.

Could be setting up a fall guy?

I’m already halfway there!

But unfortunately it led to me ordering Five Guys delivered…

Honestly that 2/3 majority thing, implemented all over the US in various ways, was only ever meant to prevent progressive change for the good of everyone. And it apparently works very well.

In 2024 Florida had weed legalisation and enshrining the right to abortion on the ballot, both had 55% support, both failed to pass.

Impeachment requires a 2/3 majority in the Senate.

But it does require a 2/3 majority.

Unfortunately impeachment requires a 2/3 majority in the Senate to be meaningful, which still is very unlikely.

More likely the Trump admin will try to use Hegseth as a scapegoat and fire and replace him.

Trump, whose net approval rating in Maine was –32 on Election Day and who lost the state to Kamala Harris in 2022.

Huh? 2022??

Was this article written by hallucinating AI or was there some other vote in 2022? Because 2024 was the election between Trump and Harris.

or never have it to begin with

I didn’t forget to mention avoiding Google Play Services.

But yeah it’s harder to find ROMs without gapps these days, but still possible. MicroG in particular is like stacking a house of cards most of the time. It’s always a trade off on what’s available… makes you want to learn how to cook.

Custom Android ROMs still have some viability, but it’s been getting harder to find ones without gapps these days.

Well there’s your problem. On Android phones you can disable the Google Photos app (or remove it all together, or never have it to begin with) and replace it with a Free and Open Source Software version that doesn’t do any of that crap.

You can also install Firefox (or a secure fork eg IronFox) with ublock origin and block ads.

With both you just lay there and watch?

Article title now says “leads”. Are they leaving room for a challenge/Trump to overturn the vote?

So it’s not exactly democratic, now, is it? And yet he frequently harps on about his “mandate”.

Don’t get me wrong I like the guy and don’t know of anyone better, but democracy is paramount to me.

It’s shady as fuck that Starmer stepped down for seemingly no reason in particular, and then Burnham takes over with no democratic vote - especially when two leaders ago Labour had Corbyn, who had overwhelming support from the party base but almost no support at all from wealthy elites. With Burnham, the party base has explicitly been denied their say. It doesn’t pass the sniff test and reeks of backroom deals.

They should be smaller, but in the meme they are bigger than they should be.

You fight like a dairy farmer!!

The new Prime Minister who has not run an election as leader of the party and was only chosen to lead the party by a handful of senior MP’s who nominated him - because he stood unopposed the party membership were not given any opportunity to vote on him.

He was voted MP by a Manchester constituency who knew him as the mayor, and then he was voted PM by a handful of MP’s - not by the general electorate nor even the party members.

I think the “feasibility” of our representative democracy has lost the point. Why do we need representatives to travel to DC, or whatever central place of government, to have their say on our behalf - especially when they all too often don’t represent their voters? Why can’t we exploit modern communication technology to have our say directly on anything they vote on?

Or if we are to have representatives, to make voting easier, why can’t we align our votes to a party or other group, ad hoc, for them to vote on our behalf? Where we could re-assign our representative based on big issues (with an advanced deadline) or choose to make our own vote directly on matters we find important? Why do we have to lock in a “representative” for 4+ years?