Politics

[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.

 

[cwpayton]

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

Ah, do you want to make a friendly wager on that statement , or are we even allowed to do that on this forum.

 

[BlueFlyer]

Guess your not that interested in how the China US tariff changes are perceived outside the US but I will share it anyway.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-13/trump-china-tariffs-capitulation-markets-respond/105285374

 

[cwpayton]

They are both 5’7” tall and probably weigh a buck sixty. Put them in a ring with no rules and see who wins. My money is on Z, although P was KGB. Z is younger and probably more angry.

I truly wish wars were settled this way, would save alot of inoccents.

 

[cwpayton]

Guess your not that interested in how the China US tariff changes are perceived outside the US but I will share it anyway.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-13/trump-china-tariffs-capitulation-markets-respond/105285374

a b c news .. just like Atlantic. not a trusted source of news.

 

[fourfive8]

Guess your not that interested in how the China US tariff changes are perceived outside the US but I will share it anyway.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-13/trump-china-tariffs-capitulation-markets-respond/105285374

Demonstrates an example of how the propaganda spread by Main Stream Media (MSM) brainwashes the world just as it does half the US population. NPR, PBS, CNN, ABC, CBS, BBC, NBC, MSNBC, etc.

 

[Pasme]

An interesting take.

China Called Trump’s Bluff — The Atlantic

There is a lesson here for anyone Trump threatens.

apple.news

Honestly i don't think they were faze, they knew Trump wanted a deal possibly more than they do.

 

[BlueFlyer]

a b c news .. just like Atlantic. not a trusted source of news.

Just to set you straight.
This is not from American Broadcasting Company USA - This article was from the Australia Broadcasting Corporation which is funded by the Australian Government and is some what independent.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Listening to the leftist bought and paid for media hand ringing about Trump bringing in 50 S. African refugees.

One of them even cited a NGO that said we are full. there is no more housing for refugees.
Just another example of they break it and then complain that it’s broken. Biden brought in 197,000 refugees and not a peep from the Democrats media drones.

Also, the media apparently found their curiosity again, and are asking questions about propriety in accepting a jet offered by Qatar.

Apparently, taking millions personally is OK for the Democrats but the taxpayers getting a break and the government receiving a half billion plane is not OK.

And as far as Qatar being our enemy. deep down, even our allies are not what they seem. If it even happens, this jet will go to the defense department.

Bad actors don’t need to gift the U.S. a Trojan horse. They have spies and operators deep within every major impactful US company, including the defense contractors and that’s why we have intelligence agents embedded in those same U.S. companies .

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

@Altitude sickness just because they have traditional spies doesn’t mean they’d turn the down the chance to plant listening devices.

Remember that thing?

I doubt by having trumps plane wired you could gain much useful blackmail material at this point he’s already shrugged off a porn starlet scandal so his Teflon is well intact. You could however potentially over hear any number of sensitive discussions about policy, trade , military manoeuvres ect.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Tubbys, The techniques used today compared to what we have in our mind. would be like referencing a rotary phone compared to the latest iPhone.

If anyone is curious why our intelligence agencies tend to be leaning more and more left.
The same circles and factories that produce the legacy media type also produce the type of people in the upper echelon of the intelligence agencies. The two might as well be mentioned as the same entity. they’ve had a symbiotic relationship for decades.

https://www.cato.org/commentary/how-national-security-state-manipulates-news-media

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

Tubbys, The techniques used today compared to what we have in our mind. would be like referencing a rotary phone compared to the latest iPhone.

If anyone is curious why our intelligence agencies tend to be leaning more and more left.
The same circles and factories that produce the legacy media type also produce the type of people in the upper echelon of the intelligence agencies. The two might as well be mentioned as the same entity. they’ve had a symbiotic relationship for decades.

https://www.cato.org/commentary/how-national-security-state-manipulates-news-media

You could be right I really don’t know , I’ve got an iPhone I don’t really know how to use. All I’m saying is the classics are classics for a reason and if I was at all involved in that deal that airplane would go to a secure location an be completely disassembled and inspected. I’m willing to go out on a limb and say there is likely some sort of faraday cage style structure already built in America somewhere that would work for that purpose.