Trump expected that getting NATO countries to increase defence spending would be a windfall for the US defence industry. Nice to see that his behaviour should reduce these countries’ reliance on US weaponry.
I saw this today and I had to post it somewhere:
I remember being in a village in Ghana, far away from Accra, where they never had power. They’d put up one of these community microgrids the day before with 50 panels and rudimentary wiring out to each of the very small homes in this village.
I was sitting the next day with the village elders, talking. They kept handing me bottles of cold water to drink, which I was grateful for. I’m a Vermonter. The equatorial sun is not my thing.
But it took me, in my clueless Western way, 15 minutes to figure out why they were so proud to be handing me bottles of cold water. Until the day before, there really hadn’t been anything cold in that place. No one had ever had a refrigerator.
Now the most important use for that refrigerator was going to be storing vaccines. But the other use was going to be providing cold water some of the time and, in fact, ice cream, because there were kids having their first taste of it that day, too.
Yeah, that’s an anecdote and not data, but it’s a fun anecdote. And, the rest of the article has some high level facts. The anecdote is one illustration the drop in the cost of solar panels.
The political connection of course is that Trump just took the US out of the 21st Century energy system.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-bill-mckibben.html
1 Like
Installing them still seems to be costly.
And, neighbor across the way put some up, and the installer seems to be at his house once a week or so. I assume not a friendly visit, but fixing something they messed up. Leak or bad wiring/connections is my guess.
Seems like it would be a lot cheaper to install solar panels for a community than build a big power plant and then build out an entire electrical grid. With the solar panels, you set up your array close to the community and then run power on a tiny grid to the nearby homes. I’d think it would be easier to maintain with only a small grid and possibly having to replace the occasional panel. Compared to a bigger grid and possibly make on-going fuel purchases.
1 Like
I meant here, in the USA, not in some remote village of Ghana, where one would bring them in, connect them, and voila. No permits, no climbing up a roof damaging the Spanish tiles, etc.
Definitely the best way to get electricity to a place with plenty of sun and no current (hah!) electricity.
We’re pricing it out right now. Probably going to do it later this month, and by that I mean start the process this month. Install will probably be 30 - 60 days out and then PGE hookup and signoff I understand can take a few weeks after.
Well his motto since his 2016 campaign has been make America 1950 again.
3 Likes
Everyone can relax. Mitch just had a “minor fall”.
0 evidence he has any cognitive ability left from that photo.
1 Like
There’s already been internet speculation trying to demonstrate that the picture of the Washington Post he’s holding in that photo has been doctored.
1 Like
The US thugs beat up Canada again. Deals with the US are meaningless these days
A U.S. bridge shakedown in a rough world
The Gordie Howe International Bridge, under construction to link Detroit, Michigan, with Windsor, Ontario, as seen in a drone image in February.
“Nice bridge you got there,” the thugs said. “It’d be a shame if something happened to it.”
That’s not a verbatim transcript of what U.S. President Donald Trump’s operatives told Prime Minister Mark Carney about the Gordie Howe International Bridge, but it might as well have been.
The U.S. President just shook down this country, refusing to allow the opening of a new Windsor-Detroit bridge that Canada paid for until our government agreed to handover more of the toll proceeds to a Michigan fund and provide guarantees that the new bridge won’t compete too hard with the existing Ambassador Bridge owned by a Republican donor.
Splitting Gordie Howe bridge profits with U.S. ‘good deal’ for both countries, minister says
And so Mr. Carney accepted a bad deal, because the benefits of a new cross-border span on the busiest international trade corridor in the world outweigh the lost cash. “Elbows up” isn’t much of a strategy given the choice was between an open bridge and a closed one.
The demeaning concession was a bit of realpolitik. Mr. Carney took one on the nose.
For Canada it was another teachable moment in an ongoing cautionary tale. Mr. Trump didn’t just use leverage to get a good deal. He ripped up the old one. As if tearing up an agreement means nothing.
I think some construction issues around the exit ramps for the existing bridge would be a nice touch.
4 Likes
Carney gave Trump something, but, less than it would seem
“We get the revenues. Then the servicing of the costs of the bridge and paying the debt of the bridge, and then what’s left over, there’s a split of that for 15 years,” he said.
“There’s not going to be a lot of net to split,” the prime minister later added.
I worry that the future revenue from this bridge may be nowhere the amount that was envisioned 10 years ago. If Canada-US trade diminishes significantly it will be a White Elephant. Even if Canada and the US stop selling cars to each other it will be a bust.
Are you saying that crossings associated with car manufacturing will be a major part of the activity of the bridge? Seems surprising to me.
It has been historically
1 Like
Even if trade is permanently impaired, the Detroit metro area is still large, and Windsor is not insignificant either. The new bridge provides better connectivity to the 401 than the existing bridge and tunnel (which probably factors into the existing bridge owner’s resistance), is wider, and has an advantage over the existing bridge of not being 100 years old.
If the economy has changed such that only one toll bridge at Detroit/Windsor makes sense, I suspect the new bridge will be the one that survives.