I am with you regarding the big ones. But what about smaller media outlets and journalists to try to make a living on their own ? We need them. More then the big ones. Then the solution is to just ignore all the big ones and read the smaller ones. With ads or paying for it.

I was talking about paywall removers not adblockers in that sentence

We didn’t care. We were the hosting provider nor the news outlets. But we had close contact to our customers. And a lot of the smaller customers had a hard time to even survive. The primary source of income was print until paywals came around. Some customers never had print and had to close down with the surge of ad blockers

That is true and false. Adblock plus takes money for the acceptable afs program, yes. But there are clear guidelines about the ads. Containing criteria for privacy, size in relation to content and more.

I work in IT for 20 years now. Half this time my salary was paid for by ads:

My company hosted big german news outlets. All money they made online was from ads.

More adblockers meant less income so their required more ads just to come out without losing money.

ABP tried to break this cycle.

Now we are having paywals, and paywal breakers. And at this point this is outright stealing.

If adblockers would allow ads that adhere to the acceptable ads criteria, the world would be a better place. Less paywals, less ads and maybe some companies would pay their employees a little bit more.

I feared as much.

It is getting late over here, so thanks for the great discussion!

Amd I wish you good look in a few weeks. Feeling with you over there

I see your point. But that is such a toxic environment, and as you mentioned this can be observed from a far, that I would assume many prefer to stay under the radar to be able to at least something and not thrown under the bus by other Republicans.

Having more parties solves this part of the issue. And if the MAGA party or the Republicans end up with more votes is a completely different thing. And a thing I am scared to think about

Exactly. And there comes in the issue: if you want to vote conservative you have to take the far right bullshit. There is no in between. There is no “conservative without that nazi bullshit”. So, if they could separate bit still have some power in the sense of seats in the parliaments, would that impact the political landscape?

Anyway, the US is stuck with American voters. So I’m glad our election system enforces patience.

I take that ;)

But srsly, it is not voters or voting system. It is both.

Imagine there would be a MAGA party with equal chances like the Reps, how would that change the policies of those parties? And would this influence the voters behavior? That is not a rethoric question, it is a thought play. I, as an outsider, would assume that the extreme right wingers would unite under the MAGA flag and their policies would adapt accordingly while the Republicans would go back to their kind of normal.

Thanks. That was my rough assumption. And that worries me. While I am not a US citizen, the USA have such immense power that yout politics affect people around the world. From privacy and data protection to the simple fact if we leave in peace or in war.

I understand it is a big issue. And I hope you find a way to change that.

He got abortion rights overthrown, handled the pandemic so badly, that the rest of the world laughed at the US, and got himself and his family richer by talking money and presents from foreign powers.

Your argument boils down to: in the US political system it is hard to change anything and therefore we are protected from “worse”? Does this argument still stand with the supreme court ruling about presidential immunity and trumps statements about dictator on day one or “you never have to vote again”? Project 25?

So, in my country we are moving towards a livable feature for citizens, in your country you are stuck with a system that only benefits the wealthy. And every approach that could change that will be undermjnedby right wing lunatics and their donors.

In the US the fucking right wing has 50% in the polls. What are you talking about?

~50% of the people ate voting for a lying, narcissistic Nazi. One of your supreme courts justices took "presents " from someone who has a hitler singed version of “Mein Kampf” in his possession. Right besides ohter Nazi memorabilia.

And your concern is, that it would be easier for a right wing minority to gain power? You have a right wing majority.

We ate shoked over here in Germany that our far right has more then 20% in election results. Your far right has 50% and one of your presidential candidates represents them.

I can understand that

I am living in a multi party country. I am experiencing the hurdles and the benefits of it every single day. Coalitions have to be formed to get the majority, smaller parties getting influence because of it.

We are getting stuff like increased minimum wage, social benefits, legalizing cannabis, and more. And not because the senior partner in the coalition wants it. Because of the junior partners. They are required to form a majority, so they can state their terms also.

And yes, some countries with more then two parties in the parliament are failing. What about the US?

Got some universal Healthcare yet? A livable minimum wage for everyone including waiters?

Effective countermeasures to climate change?

No? See, also failing. And that lies in the nature of countries. Sometimes they fail.

I see the issue with a president. But most legislation comes out of the Senate. Having more then two parties represented there forces compromises. And the wishes of more people have to be considered the get the required majority.

And if the congress is more diverse, the president looses some powers, as he can not rely on having the majority at least for two years of his presidency. He also would have to compromise all the time.

Just admit it, your system is broken.

And that is an issue how? Are you trying to say that the USA will be stuck with a legal framework from the 1800? For all eternity?

EDIT I like that. Downvoting is fine, but maybe explain why? Srsly I am very invested in politics, doesn’t matter if European or US. So, if I am wrong on a factual basis, tell me.

That is just bullshit. While your president is powerful, a lot of the power of government resides within the parliament itself.

As long as US media calls candidates of other parties as “independents” your political system stais a fucked up mono party system.

To change the Satus quo, laws must put in place, like in other countries that force media to represent all parties.

In addition you have to stop with this excessive money dependent political campaigns.

Those are gatekeeping tactics designed to keep the power in the hands of the two major parties.

There is no reason why your system could not work with more competitors.

edit: also, using a voting mechanism that was good in times before telegraph, telephone and internet makes it nearly impossible for smaller parties to get anything out of an election.

There is no reason not to use the popular vote. None!

We are leasing our cars.

Regarding the feel: The car does feel surprisingly light. Besides his 2.2 metric tons.

At least here in Europe, the Tesla superchargers work with the car.

Not sure if this generation is already available in the US. I am german, so BMW is a natural choice ;).

Currently, BMW is using the same base for combustion and electric cars to safe costs ans be more flexible how to fit the chassis. That may be a reason for the success.

Nor sure how the price in the US is, the list price for my nearly fully equipped i5 is around 90k€. The only thing I am missing is the pneumatic dampeners. They come only with red or blue breaks, and company policy does not allow for “racing looks”.

I just got my BMW i5. The car is provided by my employer. But I would buy it myself. It is well thought out, has a usable dashboard l, head up und so much convenient stuff.

Also, the build quality is great. Compared to the garbage provided by tesla it is a different world

It is, in most of the civilized world anyways

I am a systems architect. I love my job, and work is the only place I can do this stuff. I don’t have a million $ for hardware here.

Also, I’m paid well and the environment is great. For me, it is true, I don’t “work”, I do what I like. And as a german, I benefit from all the holidays, and general employee rights and protection.