Trump Redux: The Death of Democracy, or Overblown Hyperbole?

[Lisnaholic]

"Transparency" is a word we are all used to, and it rolls off the tongue easily enough, but in the coming Presidential term, we will be needing its opposite with increasing frequency: opacity, murkiness don't have the same ring to them, but that's what we're already seeing, especially regarding DOGE- its statistics, its members and even its leader, who is, on an alternating basis either Musk, or not Musk.

Here's Rachel Maddow warning America about what could be coming down the line pretty soon:-

[SGR]

I'm starting to think Trump/Republicans have a mole inside the Democrats' social media strategy team  :

https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1897628523625406559

[DJChameleon]

I like that better than this one. The Senate Democrats vid.

https://x.com/jj_talking/status/1897665932690125216

[Trollheart]

Even New Zealand is running scared now!

New Zealand has fired its most senior envoy to the United Kingdom over remarks that questioned US President Donald Trump's grasp of history.

At an event in London on Tuesday, High Commissioner Phil Goff compared efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine to the 1938 Munich Agreement, which allowed Adolf Hitler to annex part of Czechoslovakia.

Mr Goff recalled how Sir Winston Churchill had criticised the agreement, then said of the US leader: "President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?"

His comments were "deeply disappointing" and made his position "untenable", New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters said.

His comments came after Trump paused military aid to Kyiv following a heated exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last week.

He contrasted Trump with Churchill who, while estranged from the British government, spoke against the Munich Agreement as he saw it as a surrender to Nazi Germany's threats.

Mr Goff quoted how Churchill had rebuked then UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain: "You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war."

Peters said Mr Goff's views did not represent those of the New Zealand government.

"When you are in that position you represent the government and the policies of the day, you're not able to free think, you are the face of New Zealand," local media reported Peters saying.

"It's not the way you behave as the front face of a country, diplomatically," he said, adding that he would have taken the same course of action no matter which country was being spoken about.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3yew446k5o?at_campaign=crm&at_medium=emails&at_campaign_type=owned&at_objective=conversion&at_ptr_name=salesforce&at_ptr_type=media&at_creation=[84177_NEWS_NLB_DEF_WK09_THU_06_MAR]-20250306-[bbcnews_nzfiresenvoywhoquestionedtrumpgraspofhistory_newsworld]

[SGR]

I like that better than this one. The Senate Democrats vid.

https://x.com/jj_talking/status/1897665932690125216

[Psy-Fi]

I'm starting to think Trump/Republicans have a mole inside the Democrats' social media strategy team  :

https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1897628523625406559

[Lexi Darling]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things-stand/jd-vances-neofascist-reading-list
JD Vance and Elon Musk are Nazis