Putin is personally immensely wealthy and, additionally he effectively controls the economy of Russia. Trump is neither - his personal assets are dwarfed by half a dozen Americans alone. Plus as @aseriesoftubes@lemmy.world says, he likes the attention and it doesn’t take much to stroke his ego.

The RO system is dependent on the membrane. Theres a level of standardization for membranes and pre-filters. This is an example: https://www.freshwatersystems.com/products/axeon-5-stage-ro-system-50-75-gpd Conversely, there’s a lot of branded systems that require special format filters and membranes (https://www.premierh2o.com/ro-pure-plus-voc-system), which can naturally only be sourced from the manufacturer. A good 4-stage system can be sourced for about $200 give or take.

RO was developed to desalinate water. Therefore, if you use a salt-based ion exchange water softener (the standard water softener) and then run that through an RO, it’ll be a pretty straightforward process. The more pressure you can provide up front (within the specs of the system), the more efficient the system will be. (Actually, it’s the pressure differential that really makes a difference, so if you’re pulling out one cup at a time, it’s less efficient than pulling out a litre). If your water is very hard, there will be more brine produced. There are ways to minimize that waste (effectively by injecting it into the hot water supply), if that’s important to you.

A distiller will have the same problems any boiler will have.

I’ve got a softener and a RO. It comes in between 450 and 550ppm and leaves around 30-70ppm. You typically want to see a >90% reduction; less than that and the membrane needs replacing or you may have pressure issues.

And it’s getting harder to find powder. Try finding powder dishwasher detergent… locally, nothing.

Don’t need to advance when the battle is being fought in the White House.

I fear for the future of western democracy.

A sales tax disproportionately impacts people who are lower income, as a greater percentage of their earnings go towards purchasing essential goods - and defining exclusions for sales taxes is a whole exercise. Food, easy; heat, ok. But what if i heat with electricity and also drive with electricity? Should clothes be taxed? Where do we draw the line on what constitutes luxury clothing when people buy carhartt for very different reasons depending on their income source. What about diapers, people choose to buy disposables. Condoms? Period products are a shoe-in but what about cups or reusable panties?

I don’t hate the idea, but it is complex. Like most tax schemes…

There’s a lot of talk about how taxing share grants and stock options potentially harms innovation, as it impacts startup employees. Startup doesn’t have enough cash to attract top tier employees, so they’re offered stock grants as part of compensation which is fair enough. But if they’re taxed, and the stocks are illiquid (pre IPO), the employee is going to end up paying a whole bunch of tax on something that might, in the future, be worth a certain amount.

Collecting the taxes in-kind is a simple and incredibly obvious solution now that I see it.

What brand are those power strips? Last time I went shopping for power strips, they were all the rage and I could hardly find one WITHOUT that feature. Today, several years later, I can’t find any. Except, perhaps, some Chinese ones without safety approvals. I need one for my tv.