Politics

[Tundra Tiger]

Back to the jet. If Hillary was in the White House and accepted the plane with it going to the Clinton foundation after she left office how would those on the right feel about it?

I think it's BS irrespective of party.

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

I think it's BS irrespective of party.

Agreed

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

A man who isn't going to be bought. Trump going after big pharma to help get medication prices lowered.

Sounds like insurance premiums will go up

 

[Wheels]

Sounds like insurance premiums will go up

Just curious on how that will happen.

Under Obamacare, profits are capped at 15% of total costs. Insurance companies have no big incentive to negotiate prices. If prices of pharmaceuticals go down I am not sure why premiums will go up.

 

[John Wasmuth]

Back to the jet. If Hillary was in the White House and accepted the plane with it going to the Clinton foundation after she left office how would those on the right feel about it?

Taking the jet is a bad idea on way to many levels.

 

[Brent in Az]

I would inspect that 747 from stem to stern. Every nook and cranny.

 

[WAB]

Now Im regretting not buying Tesla last week lol... its at $317 right now and still climbing sharply today..

I think Elon is absolutely loving his decision to get involved with the Trump administration, and specifically take on the DOGE task.. his personal net worth continues to rise.. his time in the limelight continues to rise... Investments in his other pet projects and companies like SpaceX are booming...

Forbes says he is worth $395B today.. that's a pretty good bump from the $342B he was worth on last Friday..

At this rate I bet he is praying that Europeans crush all of their Teslas with tanks as quickly as they can get the task accomplished lol..

Several studies and AI algorithms predict Musk will be worth $1T by the end of 2027 (well before Trump leaves office)..

While I don't think those algorithms are correct (if they were, we'd all be billionaires.. they cant accurately predict the swings in the markets often enough to be of any use, etc).. I do think its telling that people that love Musk and people that hate Musk all agree.. he is going to remain in the top seat as the worlds wealthiest man for a long time to come..

Yep, I’m loving my Tesla investment. Democrats are making me money! Some are burning them, others are buying them, the stock is rebounding.

 

[mdwest]

I bought Goodyear when I should have bought Tesla lol..

 

[Altitude sickness]

The anarchists don’t realize that approximately 3-4% of Tesla stock value is from selling Tesla cars.

 

[Altitude sickness]

It think the market has a lot more runway. Tesla definitely does. 10 yrs from now you will bemoan not buying in at even todays prices.

If Bessent gets his way (as in the Tax bill, major tariff deals, Ukraine ceasefire) the Market will be in orbit by late summer early fall. Baring some unknown global catastrophe or another attack on the Homeland.

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

Just curious on how that will happen.

Under Obamacare, profits are capped at 15% of total costs. Insurance companies have no big incentive to negotiate prices. If prices of pharmaceuticals go down I am not sure why premiums will go up.

I could very well have misunderstood. Please explain the plan to me. He wants the US consumer to pay the same price as nations who pay less. Theoretically the price would lower for us and increase for them in order to level out. If the price of the medicine remains the same that is. But you’re also counting on demand remaining the same to make up the difference. If that’s so then is not exactly a conservative ideal. Price controls that is. Don’t know where I was going with the insurance part but please enlighten me how it’s supposed to work

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

Taking the jet is a bad idea on way to many levels.

Yea. The optics alone are enough to say no..

 

[Altitude sickness]

There is zero chance that insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists will allow Trump to lower drug prices. But it’s good politics.

He will have another Foil to campaign against

 

[Brent in Az]

The first squealing democrat has reared its head......

House Democrat calls for 'immediate' ethics probe of Qatari plane gift to Trump

President Donald Trump's administration is facing calls for an ethics probe amid plans to accept a $400-million "palace in the sky" jet from Qatar.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Tanks]

An interesting take.

China Called Trump’s Bluff — The Atlantic

There is a lesson here for anyone Trump threatens.

apple.news

 

[Altitude sickness]

China suffered severe damage to its economy in a very short period. I’m not sure the Atlantic is being 100% honest. China is now at the table. No one since Nixon has had any success on China.

How many past International leaders have complained and threatened to do something about Intellectual property theft, currency manipulation, closed markets, Fentanyl and Covid purposefully released on the world.

China views people overdosing as merely one less enemy to defeat in the future.

 

[Field28]

China suffered severe damage to its economy in a very short period. I’m not sure the Atlantic is being 100% honest. China is now at the table. No one since Nixon has had any success on China.

How many past International leaders have complained and threatened to do something about Intellectual property theft, currency manipulation, closed markets, Fentanyl and Covid purposefully released on the world.

China views people overdosing as merely one less enemy to defeat in the future.

Pretty much anything published by The Atlantic is the opposite of the truth.
Total rag!

 

[mdwest]

Im not sure the Atlantic's position isnt purposefully disingenuous and intentionally slanted..

No other source that I am seeing, to include some very liberal ones, take the same position as very well known liberal pundit Jonathan Chait (although I'll give Chait credit.. he has on occasion gone after the lunacy of the left when its stepped way too deep into issues of political correctness, etc..)

That said, he is a journalist that for almost the entirety of his career been focused on domestic politics and domestic policy.. he has no measurable background in foreign policy or international politics.. he certainly isn't an economics SME or international relations SME or an international policy SME.. so Im not sure how valuable his opinion is on anything remotely related to negotiations happening in Switzerland between the US and China..

What other sources are saying is (to include liberal ones.. albeit somewhat reluctantly) is that this is indeed a win.. that while yes, the reciprocal 145% tariffs have been rolled back.. that the original US tariffs from when all this began are still in place.. meaning that Trump told China (and the rest of the world) don't retaliate.. if you do, I'll retaliate as well.. China put in reciprocal tariffs, then the US escalated.. then China escalated.. then the US escalated.. until we got to 145%.. which has put a hammer on China in the short term.. but hasn't been felt much by the US consumer (yet)..

So.. the US still has its original "new" tariffs in place while negotiations continue.. which is what Trump wanted when all of this started..

Furthermore, the US is dropping from 145% to 30%.. and China is dropping from 125% to 10% on US Goods going into China.. prior to the "war" the average tariff on US Goods going into China was 20%..

All of this while negotiations go on for 90 days..

Even NPR, which is notoriously left leaning (despite them continuing to swear they arent) is reporting this as a positive outcome for the US..

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/12/nx-s1-5395027/us-china-tariffs-deal-trade-war-beijing-washington

 

[Wheels]

I could very well have misunderstood. Please explain the plan to me. He wants the US consumer to pay the same price as nations who pay less. Theoretically the price would lower for us and increase for them in order to level out. If the price of the medicine remains the same that is. But you’re also counting on demand remaining the same to make up the difference. If that’s so then is not exactly a conservative ideal. Price controls that is. Don’t know where I was going with the insurance part but please enlighten me how it’s supposed to work

For most of us with insurance it probably won’t be a massive deal. For those without insurance it could be significant.

From my understanding virtually all R&D costs are covered by Americans for all pharmaceutical companies foreign and domestic. Prescriptions in the third world are priced on the margins with places like Europe negotiating prices in between. ie: I used to have friends that would visit Tanzania once per year and get their annual prescriptions costing around 12k/year in Texas for apx 1k.

Most of the money saved would probably come to the federal government spending on prescriptions.

Another example. A family member needed 38 rounds of treatment with a drug. Insurance hadn’t approved it yet. I priced it from the hospital at 200k/dose which was unaffordable for me. I called around and got pricing as low as 25k/dose as a cash buyer which was not pleasant but doable. Thankfully insurance came through a couple days later. Now Medicare and supplement are paying 70k/dose. Why can I buy treatment for 25k cash and the largest buyer in the world pays 70k.

In all likelihood the cost of R&D will have to be shared throughout the world under the eo. Not good for the world but the world isn’t trump’s constituents.

 

[Altitude sickness]

The Bat signal has gone out and the Democrats are aggressively protecting the tens of millions of illegal immigrants against deportation.

WHY?

Well, let’s think about this logically. And there is a method to their madness. By law, the census counts every human in the country during that period legal or illegal.

How many seats in Congress and Electoral College is determined by the census count. So the sanctuary cities are to house and store people for the 2030 Census.

Liberal cities and states are bleeding citizens and they are fleeing to red states.

to offset this. The Democrats purposely imported census count numbers (illegals) into sanctuary cities and blue states and purple states.

The true goal isn’t necessarily to allow them to vote. They don’t need to. They just need the census to help them with increasing the numbers in typical liberal cities and states.

Deporting is great, but I think we all know that in the last 30 years we have at least 20 million people that have crossed illegally. and deporting 20 million is not going to happen.

so a smarter strategy would be to change the census rules. Where only citizens are counted in the next Census. The trump team is trying to change the rules. But of course the Democrats are fighting it. We have 5 yrs to get the Census count rules changed.

Or Play the Leftists game and before the census temporarily move illegals to camps inside republican districts

Or after the next Census the Left will most likely win every major election.