On Sunday, President Trump announced that the government of Qatar would be giving the "Defense Department" a luxury 747 aircraft to replace Air Force One.
The news media didn’t do their job as well as you! I wonder if any news organization will ask her those questions! Crooks caught with their hand in the Biggly cookie jar again!
That'd be the real kicker, eh?! Not likely he'd accept it if he knew he'd have to pay capital gains on a $400 million aircraft.
This is the angle the Dems could take: Force GOP Congress to sign off on Trump being able to accept the "gift," then in 2026 making sure he has to pay taxes on it.
That's why it's going to the Presidential Library, not Trump. I'm sure Presidential Libraries are tax exempt or somehow will declare it a 'traveling exhibit' or something.
No money for Meals on Wheels, no money for veterans or hungry kids - but hundreds of millions to refit a flying palace. “Emergencies” supposedly justify fascist tactics while the president spends millions playing golf every week. You couldn’t have published this nightmare even as satire twenty years ago, not believable.
And the maga acolytes just shrug. Democrats are just as bad, they still say.
I had the unpleasant surprise of hearing that type of attitude from another black man my age, who grew up with me, both of us born during the civil rights era, while he poo-poo'd the tariffs, the defense budget, the breaking of alliances by saying "democrats messed up by giving all that money to the Mexicans!"
He runs an auto repair shop that hires... Mexican mechanics.
The he went on blaming Biden for not sending enough aid to hurricane victims (don't I remember repeated republican vetos?) and when I pointed out the present administration is considering shutting FEMA down he said, "they'll just replace it with something else."
I had to leave without saying more, saddened by these words from someone whom I'd always looked up to and admired.
Exactly. Watched it happen to one of my brothers. He claimed to have a fair and biased, ahem BALANCED viewpoint from watching CNN, Fox and NewsMax. Pointing out that he is giving equal time to truth and to lies while conflating the two did no good. "What is a woman" was the biggest question on his mind. That and trans people dominating THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's like he was kidnapped into a cult. But it's an open-air prison, and its bars are made of beliefs and a false sense of belonging, instead of steel. Can't he see that those media sites require him to harm you by belonging to their hardness, and to harm his own roots and his own human values? But no, they have blinded his eyes and hardened his heart to you, and to his former self. The media sites mugged your family, stealing its cohesion and its love, and I am sorry for your loss. I wish police could stop the media muggers the way they stop the street muggers. Both run away with the money, and they change our families' lives forever with the broken bodies, and hijacked hearts, they leave behind.
We don't talk politics. I can talk to his son about anything but not him. Damn shame too. But like many, he is more easily swayed by emotional arguments lacking sense than long boring arguments substantiated with fact, logic and allusions to history.
Yes, it is a shame. Your parents did not give birth to you and raise you as a family so that he could be lost to dehumanizing propaganda. He might come out of it, but it often takes years, and nothing can give you back those years of fellowship with your beloved brother. It is a real shame, and a real loss. We all have only one life to live, and those years are never given back to us. I'm glad you can at least connect with his son.
btw, I believe it is his sense of belonging that holds him to the propaganda media sites. Truth, logic and history won't hold sway with him until he sees why he needs to feel a belonging to them (to co-emote with them) instead of to you and your families' values. The media sites trespass into our loved ones' lives without regard for the harm they do to us or our feelings...it was easier in the days before internet and radio, I think, to stop propaganda from trespassing into houses and creating divisions in families.
Of course, everyone and every nation knows that the way to Trump is through his greed for more wealth. All know exactly how to "work" Trump. Qatar simply has the ability to give our greedy leader what he wants and even beyond what he wants.
To learn how Pam Bondi has been working the system for years...with Qatar, no less, up and through active employment. To Trump we are all Losers, and Elon Musk, richest man in the world, and Putin, who may be even richer than Musk, win all of his shallow admiration,
I am in Germany and not looking forward to my visit home soon, but I need to take care of things there. I have been reading the between the lines of what is being said to Trump by EU leaders.
The tone EU leaders use with TT is what one would use with a difficult child. We count on you, we will be with you, we need you there. In the meantime, they plan their overdue independence from the TT administration, while playing nice. Once they feel they have achieved it, like independence from Fossil Fuels, something bad that you will use until you have enough renewable resources (RR) to manage. Let us replace RR with Reliable Relationship, and that is not happening under TT. Instead we will be waiting for TT 's time to end in office, and will see whether the US population elects another madman or madwoman, or seeks someone more sane as our leader.
The Air Force Times talked about the features of the present Air Force One that makes it suitable as an airborne command post in case of a nuclear attack on the USA. First, it can be refueled by air tankers allowing it to stay aloft for many days. It has an advanced secure communications system to be able to talk with all U.S. Military commands. Where is Plastered Pete’s signal app on his iPhone when there is a possible nuclear attack? The present Air Force One has special shielding against the radiation from nuclear explosions! The Qatar jet has zero special communications and shielding from radiation. The present Air Force One has classified features presumably a “package” that can protect the plane against missile attack and other secret features! This is just insane and another measure of MAGA and the Orange Idiot which is Make America Grift Always!!
I am wondering how well fitted the new plane is with electronic listening and recording devices. I assume all of the glitter and gold will be filled with bugs. Not that they need this. Just hack include yourself on Hegseth's Signal call list, and all will be revealed.
That airframe is going to be thoroughly compromised. Even with extensive retrofits and such to become Air Farce One, there's no way to be sure that it's completely clean. No intelligence service worth its salt would pass up an opportunity like that. There's are good reasons why every Presidential aircraft is built from the ground up in the US...or was. Besides, the amount of work and modification needed to turn it into what it needs to be would be more expensive than just building one from scratch.
Exactly!!! And the ones who can't see it are peering out at the world from within that nasty orange crevasse. They can't see shit! Well, on the other hand maybe they can.
By now, this kind of deal isn't surprising coming from Trump and his cronies, but it's still somehow stunning in how openly corrupt it all is. Leavitt and Bondi aren't credible in the least with their protestations that this bribe is legitimate.
These people have set a new standard for corruption within the US...and it will not end well for any of us... to include those that participate. Like violence begetting violence, this corruption will spread and complete lawlessness will ensue. The human species' need guidelines, laws, guardrails, for survival.
Wasn’t the whole point of the so called “Liberation Day” to boost American manufacturing and jobs? Last I heard, Boeing is an American manufacturing company.
On the bright side it will take months or years to go thru the plane/palace with a fine tooth comb looking for all the listening and other espionage devices as well as making sure there is no kill switch that would allow remote shutdown of all systems. (Yeah, I know, no one would ever expect that, except for several screenwriters who have already done so) And then more months or years to install all of the security stuff that makes it a flying command post for the president. It is not out of the question that this takes so long that Emperor Dipshit never gets to fly in it. Also don't discount the possibility that a future Democratic Congress cancels funding for the conversion. And on a final note, as some liberal pundit said yesterday, at the rate Duffy is going, no US airport will be safe before long and there will be no place for the damn thing to land.
For MAGA & the former GOP, unfitness, insurrection, in your face bribery, extortion, witness tampering, fabrication of evidence... is no longer disqualifying. What's a little fascism among friends? Step out of line & Elon & other right wing goons have unlimited $ to primary your *ss out of office.
Like leaking sieve Hegseth, box of wine Pirro, Eagle Ed Martin, Bondi, Habba...the depraved narcissist & chief sociopath hires...(only the best?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lSwrPaTWps
I was wondering if Qatar would give us a plane without some quid pro quo, as I know rich people abhor giving anything for nothing, that's not how they got rich. So this is nice to have clarification. The other thing I wondered is if the plane has the proper security and if it will be "bug-free." Reminds me of an embassy building in Russia that had to be abandoned because it was so riddled with spyware.
If it is bad for the US, the planet, and any of our former allies, expect Trump to do it. There is nothing in this article that surprises me.
I am just grateful he is not planning on using it to deport people to Libya, and assume he won't because by his glittery tacky standards it is too elegant for immigrants except for his wife and other foreign born relatives and crooks.
Selling these weapons systems to Qatar is just par for the course in DTs bad judgement as a president. Hope that MAGAs appreciate how much he "cares" about them by accepting this jet and by selling them "security." It should make up for shitty schools with no special education services, no health care, if they keep their health care, no doctors, or hospitals nearby, lots of specialists gone, no social safety net, nothing on the shelves from China that they can afford, or from anyone else, and no baby formula, or other things needed to survive.
And now we see all the big beautiful deals that Trump promised: all to make him richer. Never having endured an abusive relationship, I wonder how long his magats will go before they start to jump ship. How much shit will they eat before they gag and beg him to stop? How BIG the corruption needs to be, how bright and shiny the profits for him need to be before the magats can see this is not the way a leader of America acts.
Move along, nothing to (over)see here folks? The outrageously gaudy gift that 47 is humbly accepting for US(a) is barely the tip of the galactic ambitions iceberg. See Dr. Pippa Malmgren recent Summit UT presentation.
God Judd , Fabulous reporting !
The news media didn’t do their job as well as you! I wonder if any news organization will ask her those questions! Crooks caught with their hand in the Biggly cookie jar again!
Just so wrong in every way.
If he is accepting it as a gift would it be subject to being taxed?
That'd be the real kicker, eh?! Not likely he'd accept it if he knew he'd have to pay capital gains on a $400 million aircraft.
This is the angle the Dems could take: Force GOP Congress to sign off on Trump being able to accept the "gift," then in 2026 making sure he has to pay taxes on it.
That's why it's going to the Presidential Library, not Trump. I'm sure Presidential Libraries are tax exempt or somehow will declare it a 'traveling exhibit' or something.
No money for Meals on Wheels, no money for veterans or hungry kids - but hundreds of millions to refit a flying palace. “Emergencies” supposedly justify fascist tactics while the president spends millions playing golf every week. You couldn’t have published this nightmare even as satire twenty years ago, not believable.
And the maga acolytes just shrug. Democrats are just as bad, they still say.
I had the unpleasant surprise of hearing that type of attitude from another black man my age, who grew up with me, both of us born during the civil rights era, while he poo-poo'd the tariffs, the defense budget, the breaking of alliances by saying "democrats messed up by giving all that money to the Mexicans!"
He runs an auto repair shop that hires... Mexican mechanics.
The he went on blaming Biden for not sending enough aid to hurricane victims (don't I remember repeated republican vetos?) and when I pointed out the present administration is considering shutting FEMA down he said, "they'll just replace it with something else."
I had to leave without saying more, saddened by these words from someone whom I'd always looked up to and admired.
Sadly evidence that propaganda works. Start out with some credulity and soon you will be underwater in a sea of lies.
Exactly. Watched it happen to one of my brothers. He claimed to have a fair and biased, ahem BALANCED viewpoint from watching CNN, Fox and NewsMax. Pointing out that he is giving equal time to truth and to lies while conflating the two did no good. "What is a woman" was the biggest question on his mind. That and trans people dominating THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's like he was kidnapped into a cult. But it's an open-air prison, and its bars are made of beliefs and a false sense of belonging, instead of steel. Can't he see that those media sites require him to harm you by belonging to their hardness, and to harm his own roots and his own human values? But no, they have blinded his eyes and hardened his heart to you, and to his former self. The media sites mugged your family, stealing its cohesion and its love, and I am sorry for your loss. I wish police could stop the media muggers the way they stop the street muggers. Both run away with the money, and they change our families' lives forever with the broken bodies, and hijacked hearts, they leave behind.
We don't talk politics. I can talk to his son about anything but not him. Damn shame too. But like many, he is more easily swayed by emotional arguments lacking sense than long boring arguments substantiated with fact, logic and allusions to history.
Yes, it is a shame. Your parents did not give birth to you and raise you as a family so that he could be lost to dehumanizing propaganda. He might come out of it, but it often takes years, and nothing can give you back those years of fellowship with your beloved brother. It is a real shame, and a real loss. We all have only one life to live, and those years are never given back to us. I'm glad you can at least connect with his son.
btw, I believe it is his sense of belonging that holds him to the propaganda media sites. Truth, logic and history won't hold sway with him until he sees why he needs to feel a belonging to them (to co-emote with them) instead of to you and your families' values. The media sites trespass into our loved ones' lives without regard for the harm they do to us or our feelings...it was easier in the days before internet and radio, I think, to stop propaganda from trespassing into houses and creating divisions in families.
Of course, everyone and every nation knows that the way to Trump is through his greed for more wealth. All know exactly how to "work" Trump. Qatar simply has the ability to give our greedy leader what he wants and even beyond what he wants.
To learn how Pam Bondi has been working the system for years...with Qatar, no less, up and through active employment. To Trump we are all Losers, and Elon Musk, richest man in the world, and Putin, who may be even richer than Musk, win all of his shallow admiration,
Transactional Trump is our president's name!
I am in Germany and not looking forward to my visit home soon, but I need to take care of things there. I have been reading the between the lines of what is being said to Trump by EU leaders.
The tone EU leaders use with TT is what one would use with a difficult child. We count on you, we will be with you, we need you there. In the meantime, they plan their overdue independence from the TT administration, while playing nice. Once they feel they have achieved it, like independence from Fossil Fuels, something bad that you will use until you have enough renewable resources (RR) to manage. Let us replace RR with Reliable Relationship, and that is not happening under TT. Instead we will be waiting for TT 's time to end in office, and will see whether the US population elects another madman or madwoman, or seeks someone more sane as our leader.
be careful coming here, Linda. Stay safe.
Thanks celeste.
The Air Force Times talked about the features of the present Air Force One that makes it suitable as an airborne command post in case of a nuclear attack on the USA. First, it can be refueled by air tankers allowing it to stay aloft for many days. It has an advanced secure communications system to be able to talk with all U.S. Military commands. Where is Plastered Pete’s signal app on his iPhone when there is a possible nuclear attack? The present Air Force One has special shielding against the radiation from nuclear explosions! The Qatar jet has zero special communications and shielding from radiation. The present Air Force One has classified features presumably a “package” that can protect the plane against missile attack and other secret features! This is just insane and another measure of MAGA and the Orange Idiot which is Make America Grift Always!!
I am wondering how well fitted the new plane is with electronic listening and recording devices. I assume all of the glitter and gold will be filled with bugs. Not that they need this. Just hack include yourself on Hegseth's Signal call list, and all will be revealed.
My first thought was like your's. DaPlane is quite complex and could easily hold all manner of stealth electronics hidden in the avionics.
That airframe is going to be thoroughly compromised. Even with extensive retrofits and such to become Air Farce One, there's no way to be sure that it's completely clean. No intelligence service worth its salt would pass up an opportunity like that. There's are good reasons why every Presidential aircraft is built from the ground up in the US...or was. Besides, the amount of work and modification needed to turn it into what it needs to be would be more expensive than just building one from scratch.
It's just the world's biggest bribe.
Exactly!!! And the ones who can't see it are peering out at the world from within that nasty orange crevasse. They can't see shit! Well, on the other hand maybe they can.
By now, this kind of deal isn't surprising coming from Trump and his cronies, but it's still somehow stunning in how openly corrupt it all is. Leavitt and Bondi aren't credible in the least with their protestations that this bribe is legitimate.
These people have set a new standard for corruption within the US...and it will not end well for any of us... to include those that participate. Like violence begetting violence, this corruption will spread and complete lawlessness will ensue. The human species' need guidelines, laws, guardrails, for survival.
Why even bother to ask if anything Trump does is legal? He gets away with it all because the weakling Republicans won't hold him accountable.
Wasn’t the whole point of the so called “Liberation Day” to boost American manufacturing and jobs? Last I heard, Boeing is an American manufacturing company.
And Big Oil has been forced to lower production. Thank you Donald.
On the bright side it will take months or years to go thru the plane/palace with a fine tooth comb looking for all the listening and other espionage devices as well as making sure there is no kill switch that would allow remote shutdown of all systems. (Yeah, I know, no one would ever expect that, except for several screenwriters who have already done so) And then more months or years to install all of the security stuff that makes it a flying command post for the president. It is not out of the question that this takes so long that Emperor Dipshit never gets to fly in it. Also don't discount the possibility that a future Democratic Congress cancels funding for the conversion. And on a final note, as some liberal pundit said yesterday, at the rate Duffy is going, no US airport will be safe before long and there will be no place for the damn thing to land.
Is the United States still “a nation of laws, not of men” anymore? Dumb question.
For MAGA & the former GOP, unfitness, insurrection, in your face bribery, extortion, witness tampering, fabrication of evidence... is no longer disqualifying. What's a little fascism among friends? Step out of line & Elon & other right wing goons have unlimited $ to primary your *ss out of office.
Like leaking sieve Hegseth, box of wine Pirro, Eagle Ed Martin, Bondi, Habba...the depraved narcissist & chief sociopath hires...(only the best?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lSwrPaTWps
I was wondering if Qatar would give us a plane without some quid pro quo, as I know rich people abhor giving anything for nothing, that's not how they got rich. So this is nice to have clarification. The other thing I wondered is if the plane has the proper security and if it will be "bug-free." Reminds me of an embassy building in Russia that had to be abandoned because it was so riddled with spyware.
If it is bad for the US, the planet, and any of our former allies, expect Trump to do it. There is nothing in this article that surprises me.
I am just grateful he is not planning on using it to deport people to Libya, and assume he won't because by his glittery tacky standards it is too elegant for immigrants except for his wife and other foreign born relatives and crooks.
Selling these weapons systems to Qatar is just par for the course in DTs bad judgement as a president. Hope that MAGAs appreciate how much he "cares" about them by accepting this jet and by selling them "security." It should make up for shitty schools with no special education services, no health care, if they keep their health care, no doctors, or hospitals nearby, lots of specialists gone, no social safety net, nothing on the shelves from China that they can afford, or from anyone else, and no baby formula, or other things needed to survive.
And now we see all the big beautiful deals that Trump promised: all to make him richer. Never having endured an abusive relationship, I wonder how long his magats will go before they start to jump ship. How much shit will they eat before they gag and beg him to stop? How BIG the corruption needs to be, how bright and shiny the profits for him need to be before the magats can see this is not the way a leader of America acts.
Move along, nothing to (over)see here folks? The outrageously gaudy gift that 47 is humbly accepting for US(a) is barely the tip of the galactic ambitions iceberg. See Dr. Pippa Malmgren recent Summit UT presentation.
https://youtu.be/XvsTHj-MNAc?si=8szPR32BgXKg-qDl