Bayer spends three times more on R&D in socialist Europe than it does in all of North America, it has 5 times more employees in the EU than in the US and Canada combined. Bayer Canada employs almost 1000 people in R&D. I'm unsure what your argument actually is, to be honest, beyond "rah-rah, 'muricah". Pharmaceuticals are a global business, the bulk of J&J's research (an example of an actual American company) is done overseas because they go where the brains are, not where the corporate tax rate is lowest.

Pharmaceutical companies choose to do business in Canada because it makes business sense for them to do so. No one is holding a gun to Ian C. Reed's head, Pfizer simply thinks Canada is a market worth being active in and therefore plays by Canadian rules.

What is your argument?

Do you really not see that you're comparing apples to oranges? Let me reiterate: I'm not saying I support Manning, I'm saying that it's perfectly valid to support the conversion of Manning's sentence and oppose Trump pardoning Manafort. Let me help you out with some arguments that people might come up with:
1. We should hold the president's inner circle to a higher standard than some random gender fluid soldier.
2. Manning felt she was doing the right thing, if you buy into her whistleblower argument it could also make sense to support the commutation of her sentence. Manafort on the other hand was simply trying to enrich himself and his cohorts, there is no similar "he felt he was doing the right thing" argument to make.
3. Manning's sentence for the crimes that she was actually convicted for (which does not include "aiding the enemy", the judge never found her guilty of that) is considered harsh by some compared to other whistleblower convictions. Commuting the sentence to something more in line with what some would consider fair can therefore be a valid argument.
4. Manning spent 7 years in prison after her sentence was commuted, she could've gotten out after 12 years on good behavior otherwise. One could argue that this is not that big of a difference.
etc...

It's a false equivalency, period. Yes, context matters, that's why your original comment was complete bullshit: you ignored any and all context and details of the cases in question.

I'm curious though, what arguments do you see in favor of pardoning Manafort? Can you come up with something better than "but what about Manning?"

How the hell is that a great point? It's perfectly acceptable to support one pardon while condemning another. Can I not dislike one type of ice cream, but really, really like another? As far as arguments go, it's about as dumb and meaningless as they get...

No need to keep this discussion going (I'm really burned out on all of this anyway), but I lean left on social issues, consider myself pro abortion (and proud of it) but am firmly against late term abortion. The US should just follow Europe's lead on this and stop fighting against first trimester abortions, but impose strict limitations on late term abortions. It's a very good example of how extreme politics has become in the US: conservatives scream bloody murder as soon as a sperm cell and egg have been within 3 feet from one another, and the liberals will defend abortions right up until the umbilical cord is cut... it's ridiculous and devoid of any sense of reality...

Yeah... Trump isn't really known for his subtleness...