SCBills Posted May 16 Posted May 16 On 5/15/2025 at 10:38 AM, Roundybout said: India straight-up said that Trump had no effect on the peace deal. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/india-disputes-trumps-claim-that-u-s-trade-incentives-led-to-ceasefire-with-pakistan That’s just it, I mean aren’t we already working on a new AF1? Why would we dump more money into this to bring it up to military standards?
thenorthremembers Posted May 16 Posted May 16 6 minutes ago, SCBills said: She made a lot of peace with White Wine.
Niagara Bill Posted May 16 Posted May 16 6 hours ago, Doc said: I would think Pakistan would want the same respect and they praised Trump. Again very odd. Because it's not a personal gift to him. Or at least shouldn't be. Again if he uses it for official business while President and it's retired after that, fine. Doc..$400,000,000 vs a $1400 laptop 8.5b in real estate deals... LIV golf I thought you had principles... 1
ComradeKayAdams Posted May 16 Posted May 16 On 5/15/2025 at 9:47 AM, SCBills said: Trump is probably the only President I believe can negotiate complex peace deals. Im not sure why those that hate him can’t acknowledge the relative global calm in comparison to other Presidents that we had under Trump 45. Russia invaded Ukraine before and after him.. not really during his tenure. He negotiated the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Biden mangled in the execution of.. he killed terror leaders without much retaliation and his admin negotiated the Abraham Accords, which will likely be expanded upon during 47. India/Pakistan was about to pop off.. until it didn’t. Id honestly be surprised if he doesn’t negotiate a new Iran deal and the end of the Ukraine/Russia war in the next year or two. That “global calm” you speak of is always a mirage, thanks to a corporate American media that rarely covers the asymmetrical power imposition of American imperialism. In other words: we rarely hear much about the collateral damage from U.S. drone strikes, the consequences of our sanctions and embargos on the citizens of other nations, and the attempted coups and regime changes throughout regions like the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. That concludes my general foreign policy diatribe…now getting back specifically to Trump… It’s kinda weird to give Trump credit for both the 2014 Crimea invasion and Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion not happening on his watch. The implication here is that Democrats are super weak, but Trump is super strong and super intimidating. If that’s the case, why is the Ukraine war still ongoing? Why do all leaked negotiation details tell of Ukraine’s significant resource concessions to the U.S., while the aggressor (Russia) is being asked to give up so little in terms of war reparations and conquered land?? Trump had FOUR whole years to withdraw from Afghanistan, but he didn’t because he has always been a puppet of the MIC. Trump had absolutely nothing to do with India/Pakistan. The chances of Trump successfully negotiating with Iran are extremely low. He was the one who pulled out of the JCPOA in 2018, so I doubt Iran has any remaining trust in him or in the United States (and we can’t blame them for that distrust). Israel/Palestine/Gaza…where to begin?! This is the mother of all complex peace deals, and the only realistic path to enduring success is with either a one-state or two-state solution (or three-state, if Gaza and the West Bank were to become separate nations). Israel, which has grown to become an extremely far-right society since the Second Intifada, is unfortunately steeped in genocidal mania right now. Only the U.S. can rein them in, but Trump is completely controlled by AIPAC and Zionist donors like Miriam Adelson. He continues speaking fondly of Gaza’s ethnic cleansing, continues ignoring the Leahy Laws by regularly sending munitions to the IDF, continues condoning settler violence in the West Bank, and continues doing absolutely nothing to stop the ongoing Gaza hunger crisis. Trump, in fact, did a lot during his first term that motivated the Hamas attack on 10/7/23: recognizing the annexation of the Golan Heights, moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and disrespecting Palestine via exclusion in the Abraham Accords. Trump COULD radically change course, I suppose, if he cares about not destroying his presidential legacy… And I didn’t even get into the topic of Yemen…ugh… Anyone who is a student of pro football history, by the way, already knew that Donald Trump was a total fraud. See: history of the 1983-85 USFL. There’s even an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about it: “Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?”
Roundybout Posted May 17 Posted May 17 17 hours ago, SCBills said: Call me skeptical on this one. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/08/jd-vance-india-pakistan
GaryPinC Posted May 17 Posted May 17 23 hours ago, Doc said: I think there are more issues than "is this a bribe/gift to Trump personally." Like security. Or cost to make it secure. You're right, and they all seem equally important. The bribe/gift is the only one spelled out in the constitution though. Repubs certainly can vote based on security and costs though.
Doc Posted May 17 Posted May 17 4 minutes ago, GaryPinC said: You're right, and they all seem equally important. The bribe/gift is the only one spelled out in the constitution though. Repubs certainly can vote based on security and costs though. The Constitution talks about personal gifts. Not gifts to the US. 1
GaryPinC Posted May 17 Posted May 17 2 minutes ago, Doc said: The Constitution talks about personal gifts. Not gifts to the US. Congress has to approve/recognize it as an acceptable gift to the US.
reddogblitz Posted May 18 Posted May 18 6 hours ago, Doc said: The Constitution talks about personal gifts. Not gifts to the US. Yeah and President Trump is gonna park it in his "library" (let me know when the break ground) and never fly it LOL. need a new bridge @Doc? I got one.
Doc Posted May 18 Posted May 18 (edited) 1 hour ago, reddogblitz said: Yeah and President Trump is gonna park it in his "library" (let me know when the break ground) and never fly it LOL. need a new bridge @Doc? I got one. Still waiting for that bridge from when you guys told us he was gonna start World War III in his first term… Edited May 18 by Doc
reddogblitz Posted May 18 Posted May 18 25 minutes ago, Doc said: Still waiting for that bridge from when you guys told us he was gonna start World War III in his first term… Who is "you guys"? I don't like President Trump and I didn't like President Biden either. It's not a black and white world. I can dislike both if I want to. And please quote me when I posted President Trump will start WW III. That's one of the things I like about him, he hates war like I do.
Doc Posted May 18 Posted May 18 (edited) 31 minutes ago, reddogblitz said: Who is "you guys"? I don't like President Trump and I didn't like President Biden either. It's not a black and white world. I can dislike both if I want to. And please quote me when I posted President Trump will start WW III. That's one of the things I like about him, he hates war like I do. Then why are you convinced he's going to fly the plane after he's no longer President? Again the plane gets accepted, it will be property of the US Military. It's not like they'll let you take it out for joy rides. Edited May 18 by Doc
reddogblitz Posted May 18 Posted May 18 3 hours ago, Homelander said: President Trump is on a roll with these tweets first with the no talent Bruce Springsteen with bad skin and now this. But you're gonna have to explain how accepting this beautiful "gift" from an amazing country is going to save us taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. We're still on the hook for the 2 Boeing 747s. We'll have to spend a billion dollars getting the gift up to spec for AF1 over a year's time. Then we'll fly it for a year or 2 and then give it away. How does that save money?
Doc Posted May 18 Posted May 18 4 hours ago, reddogblitz said: President Trump is on a roll with these tweets first with the no talent Bruce Springsteen with bad skin and now this. But you're gonna have to explain how accepting this beautiful "gift" from an amazing country is going to save us taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. We're still on the hook for the 2 Boeing 747s. We'll have to spend a billion dollars getting the gift up to spec for AF1 over a year's time. Then we'll fly it for a year or 2 and then give it away. How does that save money? I keep hearing this. From where is this coming? Is this just a number someone threw out there and it became the "truth," like Vance having sex with a couch?
reddogblitz Posted May 18 Posted May 18 10 hours ago, Doc said: I keep hearing this. From where is this coming? Is this just a number someone threw out there and it became the "truth," like Vance having sex with a couch? Quote Turning the 747 into the plane reserved for use by America's leader, essentially a flying White House, could cost about $1 billion and take up to three years, an analyst said. “If this goes ahead, what we’re looking at is a fit-out cost somewhere between $800 million and $1.2 billion to bring the Qatari royal family’s 747 up to the level of Air Force One,” Dean Mikkelsen, an independent security, aviation, maritime and energy analyst, told The National. That includes stripping out the gold-plated luxury interiors and replacing them with a secure communications systems, EMP shielding, missile defence, and even aerial refuelling capability. https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/aviation/2025/05/15/qatar-air-force-one-747-retrofit/ Quote Converting a Qatari-owned 747 jet into a new Air Force One for President Donald Trump would involve installing multiple top-secret systems, cost over $1 billion and take years to complete, three aviation experts told NBC News. They said that accepting the 13-year-old jet would likely cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over time, noting that refurbishing the commercial plane would exceed its current value of $400 million. The project might also not be completed by the end of Trump’s term in 2028. Richard Aboulafia, an analyst and consultant on commercial and military aviation, said he thought turning the Qatari jetliner into Air Force One would cost billions and take years. “You’re taking a 747, disassembling it, reassembling it, and then jacking it up to a very high level,” said Aboulafia, a managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, a consulting firm. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/turning-qatari-747-into-air-force-one-could-cost-1-billion-and-take-years-experts-say/ar-AA1EItok Quote “It’s all based on an embarrassing misunderstanding of what Air Force One is meant to do,” Aboulafia said. “If it’s a gold-plated palace in the sky and noth HSuch airplanes have been upgraded with capabilities including secure communications systems, military-grade power systems and classified self-defense systems to protect the president against a hostile attack, as well as a medical facility. Air Force One aircraft have “one of the most exquisite comms suites on the planet,” said Doug Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “It functions as a command and control center under some of the most trying conditions [imaginable]. Even just day-to-day, that thing is hyper connected.” Past Air Force Ones have also been built with redundancies to ensure critical systems can continue operating if something fails, Aboulafia said, as well as survive and keep operating during a nuclear war. “If [Trump] wants all the capabilities and features of Air Force One, this would be a step backwards,” Aboulafia said. “They’d have to start over again with what they’ve been working on with the other 747-8” under the VC-25B program. Upgrading a 747 from scratch with those capabilities could take into the 2030s, Aboulafia said, and cost “billions and billions” of dollars. “Even the ability to manage and communicate with military forces all over the globe with encrypted comms — that’s a tremendously expensive undertaking,” Aboulafia said. “It is underway in the other 747-8s [slated for the VC-25B program], has been for years. Starting over again with the same plane would take a lot longer.” https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/05/12/experts-qatar-gifted-air-force-one-may-be-security-upgrade-disaster/ And then add in the cost to remove all this stuff before it is put into the fantastic greatest library in the history of the world. As we used to say,nothing in life is free.
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