On banks, a chap at one of my workplaces had the following pinned above his desk. Rags make paper, Paper makes money, Money makes banks, Banks make loans, Loans make beggars, Beggars make rags.
Zalinski wont agree to it if its not in his interests so I wouldn't expect too many things to be agreed. I think its just a matter that if the US withdraw arms then the war is basically over, so Zelenski has to walk a tightrope. Its a similar situation in Gaza, if the Israelis arms dried up that war would be over, so again another country relying on US support. We have been doing the same for years.
I see your grasp of economics has not improved @redstar . All Trump's tariffs are import duties you will have to pay out of your pockets, not payments made by the countries exporting those goods. That means inflation for ordinary people and especially the poor who can least afford it. It also means that certain raw goods needed by what remains of your industry are more expensive meaning their prices have to go up so fewer orders, production cuts, job losses. And so on. The tariff changes and instability mean your usual trading partners are deserting you so trade is down and other countries are finding new partners. This will have long term effects on your economy and growth. Inward tourism to the USA has tanked and loss of income is estimated to rise to 12.5 billion dollars this year. Cuts to Medicaid affect the poor as well as working and middle classes. Cuts to science programmes, including weather forecasting and disaster warnings mean people are losing research into cancers, other illnesses and also their homes when floods and tornadoes strike without warning. Gerrymandering voting boundaries is illegal and will come back to bite you. Then there's the whole Ukraine wobble, the sucking up to Putin, the plans for GAZA and, of course, the Epstein scandal and trump's deep involvement with a paedophile. So much to admire in your president.
@Thevictorian, I think if you sell goods for a living, you should sell them to anyone unless doing so would cause direct harm to others. It is not your role as a seller to dictate what jobs your customers should or should not have, IMV.
I wouldn't be surprised if Donald staggers off Air Force One after the Alaska meeting waving a bit of paper and saying "I hold in my hand.. a piece of paper."
I agree that the job a person does should not be a reason for not serving a customer but your comment covers two different aspects of business. The law says that the vendor is entitled to refuse service to the customer. The only time that is contravened is if the refusal is discriminatory under the law. So a lawyer should not be discriminated against simply for doing his job but the vendor could, possibly, give a different reason for not wishing to serve that person. A valid reason, stretching a point, is that the customer smells awful. I did, actually, have that situation (it was not a lawyer) and I told them that if they got cleaned up and washed then they would be welcome. Pub landlords ban people that are drunk. I once received a phone call from the police asking me if I needed help with two customers that had just entered my premises. They had been following them around the town centre because they were drunk and a bit rowdy. I thanked them for their concern but that, at the moment, we can handle the situation. The drunks behaved perfectly well so there was no problem.
And, in particular, the people of Ukraine, who, let us not forget, have done nothing to deserve being in this situation. @shiney, I guess I am not out and about in the world enough for all these shoeless, shirtless, unwashed inebriates to cross my radar.
The situation in Ukraine has got the whole of Europe including the UK thinking, we have relied on the US for too long. If a country can't defend itself from an aggressor then you end up where Ukraine is now. With your protector doing deals with your aggressor.
You'd be surprised the amount of difference in the people I know, knew and mixed with. I have met with people in all walks of life all around the world and there are good and bad in all of the different types.
To be fair, we slept walked into that situation and the US (Trump) administration have recently been crystal clear on their opinion of it. I can't blame them one bit on being fed up bailing countries out, militarily speaking
Trump will try and do what is best for Trump, not America. I can’t understand why he doesn’t get called out more on his frequent assertions that millions of dollars are pouring in from the tariffs, as if the other countries are paying these. It’s completely misleading ( I’d go further and call it a downright lie) and I keep seeing interviews from MAGA voters, who haven’t realised that they are the ones paying these tariffs, not China, or any of the other countries he has targeted. If he was serious about growing the US economy to become self reliant, he would have kept the taxes on the highest earners, and introduced subsidies and incentives to help home grown industries - and given them time to build up the necessary expertise. But he didn’t do that. Remind me how many times he went bankrupt?
I seem to remember that helping Europe to defend itself, by providing support through its expertise in warfare technology, was the price the USA was prepared to pay to keep any conflict outside its own shores. Europe mans the frontline, with all its risks, while Americans can rest easy in their beds, ( and make a fortune selling armaments) Previous presidents have all realised the benefits to the USA of keeping Russia in its place, but evidently that doesn’t bother Trump, as he is such big mates with Putin. I wonder if inviting Putin to meet him in Alaska is such a good idea? Maybe Putin is doing what JD Vance did in Greenland, go over to ‘case the joint’ with a hostile takeover in mind!
