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**

From Active Measures archive of Trump-Russia/Putin connection :

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#20 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-11-21 12:23 PM
That looks like the "peace" plan was written by Pres Putin, and echoed by Pres Trump.
It looks more like a surrender plan to me.

It goes further than that.

The "28 points" are meant to convey that the "plan" is very detailed - but actually very short on very important details re "security guarantees" and other legalese as to who, how and when..., while very specific on one-sided benefits for Russia - the hallmark of Russia's and Trump's business agreements that end up in courts.

Most, like "1. Ukraine sovereignty will be confirmed" and "2. A comprehensive non-aggression agreement will be concluded between Russia, Ukraine and Europe. All ambiguities of the last 30 years will be considered settled" and "3. It is expected that Russia will not invade neighboring countries and NATO will not expand further" are solidly one-sided but otherwise meaningless, as there were no "ambiguities" since 1994 Budapest treaty, when it was more than "expected" that Russia wouldn't invade Ukraine and Ukraine had very specific "reliable security guarantees" (point 5).

10. The U.S. guarantee:
-- The U.S. will receive compensation for the guarantee;
-- If Ukraine invades Russia, it will lose the guarantee;
-- If Ukraine launches a missile at Moscow or St. Petersburg ... the security guarantee will be deemed invalid.

The important outlines in parts of the plan that are clearly seen but have been missed by most prove that the "Trump plan" has been originated by Putin, given to Kyril Dmitriev to translate for Trump's "real estate 'Kissinger'" Witkoff to pass to Trump, to simultaneously claim credit and whitewash Putin's fingerprints.

13. Russia will be reintegrated into the global economy:
-- The lifting of sanctions will be discussed and agreed upon in stages and on a case-by-case basis.
-- The United States will enter into a long-term economic cooperation agreement for mutual development in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centers, rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic, and other mutually beneficial corporate opportunities.
-- Russia will be invited to rejoin the G8.

14. The remainder of the frozen Russian funds will be invested in a separate US-Russian investment vehicle that will implement joint projects in specific areas. This fund will be aimed at strengthening relations and increasing common interests to create a strong incentive not to return to conflict.

IOW, long-term goals of Putin - full rehab for him and Russia. The world according to Trump's demented fantasy (fostered and fomented by Putin) : "US + Russia vs China, China, China."

Sounds just like Ribbentrop-Molotov pact in 1939, only now the rest of the world is invited to put stamp of approval on this... and we know how that one developed.

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#1 | Posted by Corky at 2025-11-17 05:22 PM
Ha... losing money in the Casino bidness was good training for losing money in the media bidness.

Mistake #1 - thinking that DJT/Trump Media is a "media business"
Mistake #2 - thinking that Trump and his cronies are "losing money"

Only the stupid "investors" who, for some reason, keep betting on Trump "brand" as if it ever paid off for outsiders, lose money by financing Trump's scams.

TMTG was never meant to be profitable - it's just another vehicle to draw/launder money from and increase the circle of Don's "affiliates" for other [scam] ventures - DJT's revenue for last 12 months was puny $3.6M; the 2024 salary and 'bonus' of figurehead CEO Devin Nunes alone was $1.6M and his other comp. was valued at >$44M when fully vested.

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#12 | Posted by truthhurts at 2025-11-10 06:19 PM
Renewable energy in the U.S. has seen substantial growth since 2000, with overall energy generation increasing by 91.2% between 2000 and 2020.

IOW, less than double in 20 years, coming from small base? That explains why so many solar and wind companies went under.

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#2 | Posted by jpw at 2025-11-07 01:23 PM
Is it even meant to be a profitable business and not merely a front or money laundering operation?

No, they don't care about "losses" from operations, which are mostly salaries and distributions to insiders.

All Trump's family new crypto-related companies (DJT/Trump Media, ABTC / American Bitcoin, WLFI etc.) are essentially pump-and-dump "crypto treasury companies" (like MSTR / Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy) which buy Bitcoin and other "coins" (including Trump-owned coins, like $WLF etc.) mostly with borrowed or "invested" money by people who expect favors from King Donald while he occupies White House, with some "expectation" that the price of the coins or the stock will go up.

Same thing as Don Jr's PEW / Grab-a-Gun Digital few months ago - converted to "crypto treasury company" immediately upon going public which crashed the price on Day 1, and few days later distributed $20M in available cash - the company's "value" is whatever is in its coins - might as well speculate on price of Bitcoin or other "coins" without overhead.

More companies with no business are doing this, but their price is essentially tied to whatever the price of coins in a portfolio... and recently cryptos, including Bitcoin, were starting to crash, so these "treasury" companies stocks are diving.
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#14 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-10-29 10:45 AM
It was?
What was the settlement.
Feel free to answer with a wall of text.

As usual, you didn't read the complete answer, so let me highlight it for you:

I am perfectly happy with "walls of text" being ignored by ignoramuses who wish to remain ignorant... and thanks to all those who let me know they are taking "active measures" to "ignore" them.

You and EffetePoser feel free to "drift away" and try to sound clever and waste more of your time on this non-subject. I am not going to waste mine.
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#9 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2025-10-29 08:03 AM
Dude, too much.
Walls of text get ignored...
Just Sayin'.

Dude, the subject of "walls of text" has been beaten to death and addressed and settled long time ago. I am perfectly happy with "walls of text" being ignored by ignoramuses who wish to remain ignorant... and thanks to all those who let me know they are taking "active measures" to "ignore" them. I make them very easy to find, so they can be easily ignored.

It's especially gratifying to hear that my relatively infrequent (and hopefully, informative) "walls of text" are being "ignored" by a low-level Russian matryoshka-doll troll whose job it is to spread disinformation and propaganda daily on US websites.

Just sayin'.

"Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
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#4 | Posted by truthhurts at 2025-10-27 07:17 PM
Election interference

#3 | Posted by bat4255 at 2025-10-27 12:35 PM
I would not be surprised if the dump reneges on the deal.

Actually, the "deal" was that the $20B "currency swap" (plus potentially up to $20B of US government-backed "private financing arrangements") was contingent on electing Milei's party... so Greater Buenos Aires had higher turnout, "incentivized" not to lose the bailout.

"U.S. President Donald Trump indicated that he could rescind $20 billion in financial assistance to his close ally in cash-strapped Argentina if Milei party loses in Sunday's vote."

It really is a temporary bailout, since even after peso's official devaluation of over 50% to 801ARS per USD$1 in December 2023 it's continuing to lose value (it's now down 49% TTM at ~1475ARS to USD$1) despite cash injection from IMF and promised Trumpy "swap+" and the peso is still hugely overvalued; economic growth lagged expectations and inflation is picking up again to above 30% annualized, as Milei's initially promised "dollarization" has not happened... (yet? or because, simply, in Argentina's case it's nearly impossible and would exchange the problem of "exchange rate band" for many others they no longer would be able to control)... so they are effectively still a dual currency economy, which burned up through Argentina's USD reserves.

Ironically, Milei who promised the "end of bailouts" is being bailed out by Trump who promised to "end the bailouts" of deadbeat allies.

Also, Argentina may be getting orangepilled (crypto lingo) despite Milei family's / sister Karina Milei involvement in crypto scandal cooked up by same creators that gave you $MELANIA coin.

Of course, Peronists had candidates with same ol' baggage of Cristina Kirchner (convicted and sentenced to 6 years in prison and lifetime ban from public office for corruption) and same ol' "winning" message of "We'll spend more, you'll feel better... for a while."

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Asian American students make up 41% of the latest group of first-year students at Harvard College, up from 37% a year earlier, according to a report released Thursday. The share of freshmen identifying as Black or African American fell to 11.5% from 14%, while Hispanic or Latino students dropped to 11% from 16%.

The figures mark the second full enrollment cycle since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling that struck down race-conscious admissions. Harvard was a named defendant in that case, in which the school was accused of discriminating against Asian American applicants. While Harvard denied the allegation, the court decision forced it and other universities to overhaul how they consider applicants' backgrounds and experiences " without using race as a factor.

Not really surprising, as Asian-Americans of all means put a strong emphasis on education and have been willing to pay premium to invest in what they think are the best of it - and it's been paying off for them.

More detailed breakdown:

The issue is not really about "minorities" (or "protected minority / protected class") unless Asian-Americans are no longer considered minority group. In Harvard, at 41% as a group, they alone are larger than Whites. In the finite world of academic institution's enrollment, it will crowd out some other groups.

It also explains why a larger percentage of them - like many successful (or aspiring) Latinos and Blacks - have been becoming more conservative.
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#23 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-10-20 08:41 PM
That was what Silk Road was about.

What are you talking about?

By "Silk Road" do you mean BRI / Belt and Road Initiative?

It pretty much failed bigly due to both long-term "debt traps" and bad "risk management" on the part Chinese government...
Just like most centrally planned "industrial policy" initiatives, or so-called "Five year plans" in communist countries.
.

Trump destroyed that deal because it was that n----- Obama who did it.

What Obama "deal" with China did Trump destroy?

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"There are no people " everything is robotic" ...
Other executives recalled touring "dark factories" that don't even need to keep the lights on, as most work is being done around the clock by robots.

They shouldn't have been surprised, if they followed what's actually been happening. Most of them probably weren't, which is one of the reasons for outsourcing.

The problem in the US is that the left and MAGA right are treating manufacturing as nothing more than "good-paying jobs" programs, which is has long stopped to be, and failed to see that real "manu-facturing" has become "auto/robo-facturing." If/when money is provided by government as grants, loans or contracts, it's always described in terms of how many "good-paying jobs" it will create in construction and manufacturing.

Add to that the red-tape of federal, state and municipal government approvals and NIMBY environmental requirements, increasing cost of labor, as well as massive energy infrastructure required (with EVs, cryptos/blockchains, "AI" and "cloud" datacenters, in addition to increased residential and commercial demands competing - and raising prices - for electricity) that investment in "renewables" couldn't deliver inexpensively on industrial/utility scale, and it's not surprising at all that we are not where we need to be to be competitive in many aspects of economy.

For example, in 2023 China installed 276,000 robots; USA installed 38,000.

And China is no longer nearly as competitive in labor cost as many East Asia or East European countries, so companies have been moving some production to Vietnam, India and other countries.

#17 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-10-19 07:54 PM
China did something America will never do.
Take money from their billionaires and invest it into their nation.

That's just ignorant - If you'd been to China, particularly Shenzhen or Shanghai, you'd know that in many respects China is more "capitalist" that current US.

The government of China has over-invested in and overbuilt many stupid make-work projects, and real Gen-Z unemployment is very high.

Chinese billionaires are doing very well, despite Xi's crackdown on Deng Xiaoping's "exuberant" trade policies that made China a lot more competitive in the world.

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#78 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-10-10 03:32 PM
"One percent paying 40%"
On what % of income?

On 100% of net income for that tax year.


---

Posted by Corky at 07:31 PM
ChatGPT: What If Billionaires Paid Average Tax Rates?
It got me thinking, what if billionaires paid the same tax rate as the lower-middle class? I asked ChatGPT and the answers revealed just how different our world could look if the richest Americans contributed at the same level as the lower-middle class.

I see, it's another one of annual or semi-annual self-abuse ritual on the subject of "confusing wealth with income" and "how can we disguise wealth tax by conflating it with income tax"... that has been beaten to death in the media and on this site, but keeps raising its zombie head like many other similar subjects, because far-far Democrats and far-far Republicans don't know when to stop bringing up slightly different flavors of the same bad old ideas.

Then they vote in the primaries for the worst clowns who entertain those ideas.

Then the normies have to choose between them or "pox on both your houses."

Sad.
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#9 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-09-28 11:34 PM
Yeah, this was a big headline in the tech community when it was announced. ...
Israeli military's use of Microsoft products skyrocketed after a deadly surprise attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023. ...

It wasn't a [big] secret, or anything unexpected. Israeli cyberintelligence Unit 8200 was fully prepared to switch to their own cloud.

Just a little history: in 2015 Microsoft spent $320M to acquire cloud cybersecurity SaaS company Adallom, which was based in Menlo Park and founded by three former Unit 8200 members. Their Smart Engines technology eventually evolved into Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.

In 2020 the co-founders of Adallom left Microsoft and started NYC-based cybersecurity company Wiz, which was acquired earlier this year by Google/Alphabet for $32-$34B. Most of the engineering team is located in Israel.

Alphabet previously bought Israeli map company Waze, at the time less than 100 employees, for $1.3B in 2013, which was also founded by three former members of Unit 8200.

Seems like Google had a lot of success acquiring companies that start with the letter W?
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Eric Trump: My Dad Stops Wars on the Phone

Delusional family of legend-in-his-own-mind attempting to create mirage of new "golden age of Camelot":

|-----
It's true! It's true! The crown has made it clear
The climate must be perfect all the year

A law was made a distant moon ago here:
July and August cannot be too hot
And there's a legal limit to the snow here
In Camelot

The winter is forbidden till December
And exits March the second on the dot
By order, summer lingers through September
In Camelot

I know it sounds a bit bizarre
But in Camelot, Camelot
That's how conditions are

The rain may never fall till after sundown
By eight, the morning fog must disappear
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot

I know it gives a person pause
But in Camelot, Camelot
Those are the legal laws
-----|

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#4 | Posted by Angrydad at 2025-09-27 03:50 PM
So...where are all of the "free market capitalists" who should be coming to Swift's defense?

Why should anyone be coming to Swift's "defense"? She is a big girl and can handle business negotiations all by herself (and her agent, if she has one).

It's not like NFL "made an offer she couldn't refuse" - and she will probably be at a nice private guest party booth at Superbowl if Chiefs will be playing.

|------- The speculation about Taylor Swift's possible performance at the Super Bowl has now reportedly come to an abrupt end. Industry insiders claimed that Swift made some demands to perform for the halftime show. However, the NFL refused to meet her terms, and the deal has thus fallen through. Taylor Swift wanted a Super Bowl deal that reflected her 'value,' says source.

For years, fans have eagerly anticipated Taylor Swift's performance at the Super Bowl. The anticipation increased this year after rumors of her deal with the NFL hit the headlines. **

The NFL reportedly does not pay the Super Bowl performers, and Swift was not okay with it. She demanded that the NFL let her reserve full ownership of her performance while also asking for slots to advertise her own projects during the show. The NFL, however, did not agree to the terms. A music executive told Shuter, "She wasn't asking for favors, she was asking for respect. ... She wanted a deal that reflected her value." ...
-------|

So where is the problem here? Looks entirely like "free market capitalism" to me, where the parties negotiate the value of the deal but can't come to an agreement on each other's terms. Happens every day.

Swift is also very cautious about not having ownership and control of her content, after selling her portfolio early and then having to re-record and eventually buy back her own songs. She may not want to be in the same situation again.

Frankly, I think half-time shows are much ado about nothing and was unimpressed by most recent ones, and not a fan of Swift material... but that's just me. It makes money for some and gives 'exposure' to some, and apparently many "capitalists" and "socialists" enjoy them.

** Sounds like NFL wanted to put some pressure on Swift and leaked that there are 'negotiations.'
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#27 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-09-24 09:20 PM
So yeah, so long as PM Netanyahu retains his office, he apparently will not have to face the legal charges against him.

Apparently you have no idea of how democracy in Israel works - Netanyahu has been investigated for since 2016 and charged with 5 [specious] counts of corruption against him in 2019, with trial starting in early 2020. It took so long because prosecution has no real case against him and not one of 333 "witnesses" they brought to the stand testified against him or took a plea. They had to rest and defense took over in December of 2024, starting with Netanyahu's testimony. He has been testifying still last month, and judge panel ordered for case testimonies to be 3-4 times a week to speed up the case.

That's while in office, through COVID, October 7 2023 and war against Hamas, neutralizing Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hezbollah, Iran, Assad and Putin in Syria, Yemen's Houthis, Iran nuclear threat, etc. etc.


I'm not looking for an explanation.
Why?
Maybe because of this ...

- - - - - ...Netanyahu is corrupt and holding onto power to save himself. ...

So how exactly is he "saving himself" while on trial and how could he be "holding onto power"?

There are parliamentary elections in Israel, just like in many European countries. Unlike Gaza, under "Hamas management" since 2007 and West Bank where Abbas is into his 21st year of 4-year term he's been "elected" to.


Re "corrupt" you are just echoing what you have "learned" right here, on "this most august of the august sites."

Check the cases 1000, 2000 and 4000 against Netanyahu and see if those qualify as "corruption" by our "democratic" standards, e.g., case 1000:

|------- In Case 1000, Netanyahu is accused of having a conflict of interest while he was the Minister of Communications and handled affairs related to Arnon Milchan's business interests. The prosecution alleges that Netanyahu received expensive cigars and champagne worth $195,000 from Milchan and James Packer, a friend of Milchan's, over a period of 20 years.

... As per the allegations, in the years 2013 " 2014, Netanyahu asked John Kerry on three separate occasions, to help Milchan in securing a US Visa. ...
-------|

Again, I do not disagree. So, how does all that affect the NYC Mayoral campaign?

Because propaganda rules demand (and pays only) that any thread is turned into anti-Israel, anti-Netanyahu, anti-Joo discussion (see Effeteposer et al) whenever possible.

BTW, the word HAMAS didn't appear once in this thread about "belligerent people"... that Israel and their governments had to defend against since its establishment in 1948.
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Reuters: "A loan for an Atlanta home purchased by Lisa Cook... shows that Cook had declared the property as a 'vacation home.'" Case closed.

People who Trump publicly accuses of mortgage fraud are credit-worthy enough to get loans at the best possible rates regardless of the properties' stated purpose so, unlike Trump - who was convicted of multiple counts of real estate fraud - they didn't actually need to commit fraud to get favorable terms.

#9 | Posted by visitor_ at 2025-09-20 05:14 PM
I've never claimed more than one primary residence at a time on loan or tax documents.

Good for you.

For taxes there may only be one "Primary" residence. For loans there may be several "Principal" residences if you spend substantial amount of time there (e.g., working or taking care of a relative in other city or state, etc.) and they are not "vacation" / "secondary" / "rental" or "investment" properties.

This is not unusual.

What is unusual - and much more interesting - is WHO dug this generally non-public info and WHY it was done the way it was:

WHO : Bill Pulte, current head of FHFA, who inherited PulteGroup real estate empire, currently worth $26B.

HOW : Did Pulte or his staff just happen to read some randomly chosen (from millions held by Fannie and Freddy) past mortgage applications and stumbled into the alleged abuses by NY AG Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff and Fed Gov. Lisa Cook? Mortgage files are not public, so what was the 'primary' reason for him to even start looking for this information?

WHY : If he really thought they committed a fraud, why announce it publicly instead of going through usual procedures of informing IG and eventually referring the case to DOJ for prosecution?

Obviously, as was the case with Jerome Powell, the intent is to intimidate and force out a member of supposedly "independent" agency to staff it with lapdogs who would do his bidding of lowering interest rates and devaluing the USD, regardless of inflation or other economic issues.

Pulte's RE company can also potentially profit from lower interest rates... but Trump's and his cabinet of flunkeys issue of conflicts of interests seems to be a feature, not a bug.

Maybe Pulte himself has some 'splaining to do?
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#26 | Posted by BillJohnson at 2025-09-17 09:25 PM
These late night shows are tanking in the ratings and it's no wonder why.
We need another Johnny Carson.

Actually, the reason you don't understand "why" is because you blinked and missed the rapidly changing "content creation and delivery" business landscape - "free TV" today is far from what it was when Johnny Carson was "on the air" competing only with a couple of similar OTA networks and a few "cable" news/entertainment channels, mostly CNN and MTV.

Today, number of digital CDNs ("Content Delivery/Distribution Network") is huge (YT / TikTok "channels" etc.) and content more fragmented than 3 or 4 OTA TV networks then, and people don't have to stay up late, especially in Western time zones, to watch "live" late-night network content.

So comparing today's "late night" ratings to old times or any other available content is nonsensical. If networks were really losing money on these shows, they wouldn't keep them on the air - the programmers and accountants there are not idiots and understand "ad and aux revenue" and change shows all the time - if they could make more net $$ doing that they would do it without "input" from Trump and FCC chair.

So maybe we should leave programming and accounting to the networks? We don't have to like or watch it. Or do you really want to be hypocritical and maintain that the reason Colbert and Kimmel are being "cancelled" is because they have "no talent" and their "low ratings," and Trump's clearly stated desires and threats had nothing to do with it?

Q: What were the ratings of the whatever show that replaced Kimmel's this week and how much money DIS made / lost with it?

Q: Do you really want your content choices decided by the Programmer-in-Chief? Be careful what you wish for.

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Trump has never stopped trying to make his boss his BFF:

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Godfather of AI Says His Creation Is About to Unleash Massive Unemployment

Luddites, you lot.

Every technological change led to disruption and change and obsolete whole industries, both in "manu-facturing" (literally L. "production by hand") and services - horse-and-buggy / pony express transportation to telephone switch operations etc.

Human workers have been replaced by robots and cobots, automation and computers for a lot less time than Industrial Revolution replaced manual labor, yet most of the people who want a job have had one.

For example, 3D-manufacturing, additive and reductive, as well as specialized robotics, have significantly improved the process and production times while reducing the need for human "brawn" in both manufacturing and service industries, as well as making it less expensive amortized over time.

I know, "this time is different" because this time "they are coming for white-collar jobs"... but the doomers (including those who have advanced the technology) told us that it was "different" all those times as well. And they were somewhat right - real progress is made by technology, not the politicians, especially ones who try to "stop or slow down the doomsday"... like Elon Musk recently suggested... for others, not his own "AI" development.

The point is that laws will stop no one else nowhere else from technological progress - which, as usual, brings with itself and can be used for good as well as bad.

New "industries" and services, adopting "AI" will come up, that you have no idea about yet, same as using technology before freed people for more productive endeavors.

#6 | Posted by Nixon at 2025-09-10 07:06 AM
Maybe trading our manufacturing and agriculture for desk jobs pushing numbers was a bad idea.
Too late now, people are complacent to pay $150 for a 55" HDTV. There is no way they will pay $1500 for the same thing.

That sounds awfully like "America First / MAGA" - "bring manufacturing and agriculture(??) home!" - this is exactly how Trump got so many of formerly reliable Democratic "identity politics" voters to abandon increasingly elitist (20%) "progressive" party.

The idea that "we" (the US government? the "rich"?) "offshored" manufacturing and the reason for our "problems" is that "we" (the people) no longer want to pay $1500 for items that cost less than $150 to produce somewhere else has been debunked many times over - it's called "pricing yourself out of the market" and "Money goes where it's welcome and stays and multiplies where it's well treated."

Damn those "globalists"! "Bring manufacturing home!" "America First"! "MAGA!"

Howard Lutnick's "army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones - that kind of thing is going to come to America" is not "coming to America" - it's a fantasy of the times long past by the "globalism deniers" and believers in Trump Org "Central Committee economic planning" - it plays on the voters' economic illiteracy and ignorance of history, and putting the "blame" on one or the other party / President / "the rich/elite" / "greed" for natural progress and adoption of technology.
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** Not even "single-payer" / "universal" medical insurance systems are the exception, e.g., even The Guardian (and Labour gov't) had to admit that British NHS is "broken" (inadequate funding and long wait times for routine procedures):

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Article "Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures" - NYT, 2025-08-28, has no reference to Medicare "rationing" services, and for good reason - neither "traditional" Medicare (even with Medigap) nor Medicare Advantage, which already enrolls more than half of Medicare recipients and becoming more popular, ever provided all-you-can-eat services. **

Article also acknowledged that: "... There are clear-cut examples where Medicare has wasted billions on questionable medical care. The agency came under scrutiny earlier this year for spending billions of dollars on expensive "skin substitutes" of dubious value. ... A.I. screening tool would focus narrowly on about a dozen procedures, which it has determined to be costly and of little to no benefit to patients."

"Prior approval" may prevent costly, unnecessary procedures and a lot of Medicare fraud, which is a well-known issue that cost CMS and law enforcement billions.