What has Trump done now?

[kgwilson]

It took Britain till the 1980s to pay for all the lend lease stuff they got in WW2. Russia also got massive lend lease aid but paid none of it back. Of course this would be lost on Trump. He knows nothing of history and doesn't read books. It's all about him and he has to win even when he has lost he refuses to acknowledge that as in the previous election.

[facthunter]

I can't wait TILL He is  History. Of ALL the People in the USA......  Nev

[pmccarthy]

The minerals deal is a nonsense. Any country can issue a minerals lease. They then receive royalties, usually 2% to 5% of sales revenue. More than that and the project is not economic. It takes billions to establish a new mine. How can Trump extract more than the 2-5% amount and still have the projects funded by the stock market? It makes no sense. 

[rgmwa]

You don’t really think that Trump has thought that far ahead? For him it’s all about the signatures, not the fine detail. 

[facthunter]

 A Mine. Means MINE.   That signature is like a SEISMOGRAPH done with Black Texta  Nev

[old man emu]

22 minutes ago, pmccarthy said:

How can Trump extract more than the 2-5% amount and still have the projects funded by the stock market? It makes no sense. 

As we have seen over the past month, a newly-sworn President can change almost anything with the stroke of a pen, or a Sharpie. Any arrangement Trump makes with any other country can be rescinded in a moment by the next President. Do you think that the Republican candidate in the 2028 election has a snowflakes chance of being elected?

[onetrack]

Re the WW2 Lend Lease, the equipment provided under L-L was just that - Lent on Lease. No payment was ever made to the U.S. for L-L equipment, but many nations made good profits out of abandoned L-L equipment and supplies, or L-L equipment sold at discounted prices. It's all on the Congressional Record, if you want to look it up.

 

What Britain DID have to pay for, was munitions, guns and weaponry, aircraft, ships, trucks, jeeps and logistics equipment that was ORDERED by the British Govt. These sales were called "Cash and Carry" and this system was even used by the Germans up until America was bombed by Japan.

Numerous Middle East veterans told me about their anger when in the Middle East, and driving old British and Australian junky equipment and vehicles, only to come across Germans driving new Chevrolets - all purchased directly off the U.S. using "Cash and Carry"!

 

There were offsets ("reverse Lend Lease) by the Allied countries, such as food and hospital services, airfields and shipping services, and accommodation provided for U.S. troops, by those nations. 

 

Some good answers on the Quora site below ....

 

https://www.quora.com/Was-the-USA-profiting-off-Lend-Lease-in-WW2-or-were-they-just-donating-free-stuff-to-the-Allies

 

Edited February 26 by onetrack

[old man emu]

4 minutes ago, onetrack said:

There were offsets ("reverse Lend Lease) by the Allied countries, such as food and hospital services, airfields and shipping services, and accommodation provided for U.S. troops, by those nations. 

That's what Australia did. We grew food to feed the US military, provided logistical support repair base localities and so much of that "ten men at the rear to support one man at the Front. At war's end, the UA did want us to pay for machinery left behind, but it only took until about 1948 for a deal to be made and we bought heaps of stuff at pennies in the pound. That's why rural fire brigades were running around in Blitz wagons well into the 1980s.

[onetrack]

In dollar terms, Australia actually supplied more in war supplies and services than the Americans ever supplied to us in War equipment and material. In effect, the Yanks owed us at the end of WW2.

 

[red750]

22 hours ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

what does it matter which way it is,

Bend over and bare your a**e and give him what he wants. What does it matter?

[octave]

 

 

FDA cancels expert meeting on flu vaccines

 

The US Food and Drug Administration has unexpectedly canceled a meeting with experts to discuss the development of next year's flu vaccines, media reported late Wednesday.

It comes after the Republican-controlled Senate approved Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary this month, disregarding widespread alarm from the medical community over his long history of promoting vaccine misinformation and denying scientific facts.

Laboratories that produce flu vaccines have traditionally relied on the FDA to annually select which strains should be chosen based on the variants of the virus expected to circulate in the United States the following winter.

A selection is usually made by an expert committee convened by the FDA in March based on data from the World Health Organization.

 

"We're all left trying to understand what is going on. Why was this meeting canceled? It's an important meeting. What's the plan for flu vaccines this year," Paul Offit, a member of the FDA advisory committee and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told CBS News.

Offit confirmed the cancellation of the meeting and warned that it could interfere with or delay production of flu vaccines.

He added that given the vaccines have a six-month production cycle, he assumes the committee is not picking strains this year.

[old man emu]

Well, now we know how much Trump has his finger on the pulse of US/Australian relations.

 

In the press conference with British Prime Minster, he was asked if they would later discuss the AUKUS deal. Trump did not know what AUKUS was, and when it was explained to him, he immediately tried to salvage the situation by uttering platitudes about US/Australian relations. He didn't say anything solid, just all huff and puff.

 

AUKUS is going to turn out to be a waste of our money. Why does will it take a decade or more to deliver the submarines? Will the US find some reason to back out of the deal, claiming it has a prior need for the subs? 

[onetrack]

Quote

He didn't say anything solid, just all huff and puff.

 

That's Trump's modus operandi at all times, full of BS and hot air, no focus and no persistence. Can get diverted off crucial subjects in seconds, by pandering to his ego. The ultimate airhead.

 

We've already put down an $850M deposit on those subs, Trump will soon start looking for increased amounts of payments outside contract terms, and then probably tear up the contract, telling Americans the deal "was the worst-ever for America!!!".

 

He'll be looking to see how Trump corporate entities can make more out the deal via unauthorised additions. We'll probably have to buy 10,000 Trump bibles and sneakers for the deal to proceed under his terms.

 

Edited February 28 by onetrack

[rgmwa]

Once he realises AUKUS was a Biden deal, he will probably tear it up.

[facthunter]

ALL very interesting but not informative . Wasn't Britain also part of the AUKUS deal the Morrison got AUS into?   Nev

[rgmwa]

Trump obviously follows this foreign policy, often attributed to Henry Kissinger once saying "America has no allies or enemies, only interests", which he didn't, but this is what British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston said in a speech to the House of Commons in 1848; "Therefore I say it is a narrow policy to suppose that this country or that is to be marked out as the eternal ally or the perpetual enemy of England. We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow".   

 

[facthunter]

Al these quotes are historical and part of the discussion but HOW and to WHAT degree they are applied it a necessary context. Trumps application looks like a MANIA Tariffs are the FIX for everything.. Bugger voting! Only WE know what's best for you.. Get out of the way or else.. Vance said It's"Trumps WORLD Now" .  WELL F**K me dead. I NEVER got a VOTE.   Nev

[onetrack]

There's quite a good article in the SMH and the AGE about how unprepared both sides of Australian politics are, to face up to the new Trump reality of "isolationist America".

 

https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/federal/trump-has-sent-a-wrecking-ball-through-old-alliances-the-implications-for-australia-are-severe-20250226-p5lfdx.html

[Marty_d]

Every country is scrambling to wok out how to deal with the buffoon, apart from Putin who already knows very well how to deal with him.

I just think of similar figures to Trump... Hitler,  Hussein, Ceaușescu, Gaddafi... further back in history - Caligula, Nero, even Julius in some regards (in that he turned democracy into a dictatorship).

 

All of them met a sticky end.

[Jerry_Atrick]

4 hours ago, onetrack said:

... to face up to the new Trump reality of "isolationist America".

 

 

3 hours ago, Marty_d said:

Every country is scrambling to wok out how to deal with the buffoon,

I think it is deeper than just Trump. He is, at the end of he day, there because the American people put him there. All over the world, there appears to be this desire to elect in fqavour of rabble rousers and against the elector's intersts.

 

We simply can't rely on any of our allies anymore. GON ios correct in that people are p!55ed off; Everything is being blamed from immigration to vegans to trans to dog knows what else. Regardles, the world is chainging in a bi way and the old way of relying on a few strong allies isn't going to suffice.. Autarky and military self sufficiency may well be where countries have to go.

 

[pmccarthy]

One theory says that governments bloat over decades and that only a war or a revolution can refocus and streamline them.

[old man emu]

Holy Shit!

 

Trump and Vance have just taken a major step towards alienating their Administration from the rest of the Free World. They got into a yelling match in which insults were hurled at Zelenskyy. Trump doesn't know the difference between diplomacy and Reality TV. Can you imaging any other World leader holding diplomatic talks in a room filled with the Media? 

 

Honestly, I am so astounded by what Trump and Vance said to Zelenskyy that I have to urge you to log in to YouTube and pick a video from the many to see what went on. Here's a link to a short video, but also take the time to look at some of the longer ones which show more detail. Even in that yelling match, Trump lied when he claimed that Zelenskyy campaigned for the Democrats. That was fact checked in this video. Zelenskyy went to a munitions plant to personally thank the workers for making the munitions provided to Ukraine. 

 

 

[nomadpete]

Great news....

 

Dunny has united europe to support Ukraine!

 

(Except old mate Orban)

[facthunter]

I know which of the 2, I would like to have a beer with. Not that I drink BEER/ XXXX . Trump is in a class of his own. NO CLASS at all. Good on the USA republican party. We now divvy up our allies SPOILS with their Lying Murdering Oppressor.  HIS new Best MATE and engage in a fight with the rest of NATO. Don makes HITLER look charming and knowledgeable by comparison. Nev

[onetrack]

What a pack of American thugs and bully boys, and greed merchants! I'm glad to see Zelinsky tell Trump and Vance where to shove their ideas of peace, and walk out.

 

Now, all that needs to be done is to double the rent on American military facilities in every foreign country, using Trumps bully-boy methods.

 

Tell Trump he can pay double the rent, or piss off! - because your bases are obviously zero value, when it comes to the protection of the country they're in! The only thing they are there for now is protecting Trumps personal interests. I can see a major market developing for "GO HOME YANKS" banners!

 

The problem is, that Trump and Vance are so thick, they don't see that they've emboldened Putin and Kim Jong-il to advance their warmongering plans and schemes, and that they're boosting the Russian and Nth Korean economies with their love of dictators.