Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

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ChapelHillSooner said:
Trump called Trudeau a governor. Add that to the comments about making Canada the 51st state and his general complaints about the northern border, I am beginning to wonder if there isn't something there to the joke I made about Trump invading Canada.
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Trump doesn’t need to invade Canada to assert America’s dominance over them, the DOD already has de facto control over Canada due to them falling under the umbrella of NORTHCOM’s strategic command responsibilities for all matters related to air, sea and land defense.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
It's not like those folks are free. We pay a lot of tax dollars to protect the Lithuania's And Montenegro's of the world. And in return we get some half willing but not particularly useful allies. The US lost over 2,000 soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Lithuania lost one. And it's not just a story of relatively poor or developing countries. Belgium lost one soldier. Portugal lost two soldiers. These were all countries that sent a token force and limited them to things like logistics and training the Afghan army, not infantry operations. They aren't the only NATO allies. I can't imagine a war where we protect Lithuania where the US would lose one soldier proportional to our population.

So while some of these countries might be willing members of a defense pact, they don't really consider it a mutual defense pact.
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The value in having Lithuania and Montenegro and not that we need or want their troops to defend us. The value to US interests is in having as many friendly partners who depend on us as possible. Adept use of "soft power" through things like NATO, foreign aid, etc is hugely beneficial to US foreign policy (something that easily pays back the relatively paltry sums we spend) and is one of the major reasons we have historically succeeded in spreading our influence around the world. Kicking countries out of NATO, on the other hand, will (1) turn happy partners into disgruntled non-partners at best (and ultimately enemies at worst), and (2) send those countries elsewhere to look for partners, protectors, and friendly relationships. It is a really bad, self-defeating idea. Even when leaving aside the strategic implications - that these countries are strategically located next to Russia, one of the major potential foreign antagonists with the possibility to start a global conflagration.
 
ChileG said:
You don’t get points for pre-game smack talk.
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I would agree given the red lines that obama and biden drew that were ignored. But, a new guy is riding into town and he seems batshit crazy. So, other countries might not know just how to take trump's words. That doubt can be useful to the US.

As for NATO and the left's fear of trump pulling out, he has already come out and said if everyone is pulling their weight it wouldn't be in our interest to leave NATO.
 
Paine said:
That’s going to be an issue as long as our current system remains in tact. The people with the education and expertise to conduct research into pharmaceuticals tend to be the same people who work for pharmaceutical companies or have worked for them in the past. This isn’t a very large group of people we’re talking about.

If someone goes to school for this, likely taking on massive amounts of debt to do so, they’re basically forced to work for big pharma at some point in their career to pay it back. Maybe they can go into government service after that at a severe pay cut.

I get what you’re saying about the “revolving door” though.
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No one getting a PhD in biomedical sciences or pharmaceutical sciences should be going into debt to get the degree. Tuition waiver and a $25-35K stipend are typical.
 
lawtig02 said:
How? Those comments are predictive, not statements of prior fact. And Patel is about as public a figure as you can get right now. Any lawsuit would be pure — oh what’s that word??? — lawfare.
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That is what I initially thought until I read the letter from his lawyers. It appears she was talking about things he did in advising Pence in the past.
 
Callatoroy said:
I would agree given the red lines that obama and biden drew that were ignored. But, a new guy is riding into town and he seems batshit crazy. So, other countries might not know just how to take trump's words. That doubt can be useful to the US.

As for NATO and the left's fear of trump pulling out, he has already come out and said if everyone is pulling their weight it wouldn't be in our interest to leave NATO.
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And you should agree also based on umpteen things Trump has claimed were going to happen that never came to fruition. You know, since we are talking about Trump.

But, it’s good we agree the score is currently Trump 0, Putin 0.
 






Must’ve caught up on his rest — getting back to his old self.
 
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This one slays me. “Patriot of the Year” was an award drummed up for candidate Bob Roberts in the movie by the same name.

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