I do feel you need to be careful. It seems to get worse and worse by the hour. To get a feeling for who might be trusted, you might talk about related things in the news, events or people you know in a neutral manner and carefully watch someone’s response. For advice and such, I guess you can only rely on Canada/Europe/New zealand/Australia from now on. Consider this a war situation in an occupied country.

Well, I guess Canada has no choice then, right? And we Europeans need to sell Greenland. And Panama has to give back the channel. I guess he is in his “art of the deal” mode of starting high so we all grovel to limit the damage. Can’t we as the last free countries not band together against these fascists?

I think that’s indeed one of the big issues with people like that. They surround themselves with yes-men and then start to believe what those yes-men say. And obviously forget that they themselves made it pretty deadly to be a “no-man”.

Trump: “I will, yeah. He liked me.” Trump probably takes that as a compliment.

Money buys power.

I predict the WaPo will turn into the upcoming American Reich’s Pravda: the truth and nothing but the truth that the Trumpistas want you to see.

I’m pretty sure you are right. It will get worse gradually. Other papers will not dare to criticize the government out of fear to get harassed or shut down. I’m also pretty sure that all the enemies of Trump will be accused of one thing or another. And with AI it’s easy to create nice pics for the front page. “Nancy Pelosi eats babies” or something slightly less ridiculous.

“Apparent”. I would not know what else this means? “Give you my heart” with the palm downwards? This isn’t an accident and has nothing to do with any “autism”. This is the green light for groups like the Proud boys. It’s the modern Sturmabteilung, meant to protect gatherings and disrupt any protests and intimidate opposition.

I agree that Russia is a danger. But it’s also obvious to me that Europe can’t rely on the US any longer. There’s no other option than to increase our defence, but we should not remain dependent on US weapons in the long run. We must build our own weapons (Trump only wants to increase NATO budgets to get Europe to buy more American weapons, he leans way too much to Putin). Not only that, but we most definitely also need an “IT army” that tracks foreign intervention on social media and prevents hacking. We should make sure we err on the safe side, regardless of a GDP percentage. It’s very sad that this is needed to survive and I hope that one day, we can do without and spent our money on scientific research and improving wealth. It’s time for Europe to stand up and lead the free world now!

Thanks, doesn’t sound good at all. There is lots of worrying that Elons billions will enable him to push the extreme right wing political parties with similar views here in Europe. Some think this will be a great thing, but luckily they are still a minority at the moment. But for how long? Take care people, as I expect groups like the Proud Boys will harass you and get away with it.

I’m a straight old white male European, so hope you don’t mind me posting here. I’m just curious about what impact this will have? It seems to me, that “freedom of speech” can easily be interpreted that it’s ok to hate non straight people? Medical treatments might be impaired as well? Also: hate groups like Proud boys and White Lives Matter might very well feel emboldened to get violent, certainly after Elons “gesture”. As a European, I fear the worst as this crap looks extremely familiar. What are your thoughts/expectations/fears?

They certainly used the NSDAP propaganda leaflet. Elections are not about facts, but about generating feelings and giving the masses the idea that only you can and will solve all their problems. There was lots of projecting as well. I just hope this doesn’t cause too much damage to the US and the world. What you got now is a corrupt bunch of criminal oligarchs in charge with largely unchecked power. Elon frightens me more than Trump though. Trump can be played by stroking his ego (like the new secretary general of NATO realises he must do to keep NATO alive). Elon is higher on his new power than he ever was on keto. I think he and the heritage foundation just used Trump as a Trojan horse, with Trump being the populist piper. Imagine what you can do with $450 billion? Who’s going to stop you?

“for providing so-called “harmful” materials to minors.”

I wonder who decides what is harmful and what not?

I really doubt it’s for the “protection of children”.

Brave and correct thing to do. Amazing situation for such an iconic news paper. Down the drain it went. I hope true journalists like you will band together and keep informing the public of what’s going on. I do realize that the situation you will have to work in will be harsh from now on.

Europe is building up its military, most of them well beyond the NATO limit by now, a few, like Poland, even beyond the USA. If it will be enough when shit hits the fan? I’m afraid not yet, but likely can put up at least something of a fight.

If Putin wins, all hell breaks loose. There can only be peace if Ukraine gets hard guarantees, preferable NATO member. If not, Putin will make peace for now, restore his military and just give it another go. Europe must be able to defend itself as we can’t count on Trump and the US from now on. Both him and Elon seem to have a strong connection to Putin. We also should not be depending any longer on US made weapons.

I’m European, but this weird backwards movement is also gaining traction here, be it not (yet) as extreme as in the USA I think. I’m a straight, old (63), white guy to be honest. I do feel you have the right to live in the body that fits you. You also have the right not to be hassled by others for being trans. More accurate: you should have those rights. I obviously can’t feel exactly what you feel. I do feel sorry that we all end up in a world like this. It’s rewinding roughly 50 years back I think. To me, the world seems insane: truth is irrelevant, money buys everything, science and knowledge are something to make fun off. Decency is dead. I can imagine why you feel that way. Still, I have hope that one day there will be a counter movement. Back to the sanity, decency, behaving like a human being again. I can’t ask you to stick around to help that to happen. I hope you do. Don’t leave us alone with these ruthless monsters. Take care. I do wish you all the best.

Still, Maga’s will not believe this anyway. Anf fact checking is something from the past. Not sure what Trump wants to achieve with telling such crap? Play the big man again, I guess?