A prominent diplomat lost his job because of a comment about Trump. He said out loud what most of us have known for years: Trump doesn’t know much about history. His world is centered on himself and his giant ego. Whenever he refers to events that preceded his own life, he draws a blank. One well-known example was his reference to famed 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass as “an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.” It was obvious that he had no idea who Douglass was. What made it even more embarrassing was that he was speaking to his African-American supporters at a breakfast honoring Black History month. They knew who Frederick Douglass was.
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…
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark was among those who criticised Mr Goff’s sacking, saying it was backed by a “very thin excuse”.
“I have been at Munich Security Conference recently where many draw parallels between Munich 1938 and US actions now,” she wrote in a post on X.
Under the 1938 Munich Agreement, Hitler took control of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland. The deal failed to stop Nazi Germany from advancing deeper into Europe and World War Two began when he invaded Poland in 1939.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
i despise Trump and his minions . And nor do I consider him to be in any way a sincere advocate for “ Peace ” ! But that being said i also ( albeit for very different reasons than Trump ) want an end to the very very bloody and dangerous war in Ukraine . No there was no justification for thé Russian invasion. But there also was no justification for the US/ NATO breaking the promise by then US Secretary of State Baker that NAtO wouldn’t expand to the borders of the former Soviet Union . ( Could you imagine the US bi partisan response if Mexico or Canada considered a Military alliance with China or Russia ? To ask the question is to answer it ! )
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Why shouldn’t a nation that wants to be part of NATO be permitted to do so if it meets the criteria?
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“Why shouldn’t a nation that wants to be part of NATO be permitted to do so if it meets the criteria?” The point is mute. We’re 3 years into this war and there have been numerous casualties and deaths on both sides with no end in sight. I saw a BBC piece with Ukrainian police checking everyone’s ID to find draft dodgers. A Ukrainian wedding had lots of no shows because the young couple’s friends were afraid to be drafted. 6.8 Ukrainians have left the country, many soldiers have deserted. The Russian invasion is unjust, but I fear that Ukrainians are going to get slaughtered because they’re caught in between two super powers and they’re hopelessly outnumbered. If Ukrainians are all in on the war, then why is there conscription and why are people trying to flee it? I think that a negotiated peace settlement might be the best possible outcome for a terrible situation.
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If Russians are all in on the war, why are they using conscripts, prisoners, and North Koreans?
The U.S. has always used conscripts.
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“I think that a negotiated peace settlement might be the best possible outcome for a terrible situation.”
No sh*t, Sherlock.
Thank you, Captain Obvious.
The Republicans and Putin are opposed to a “negotiated peace settlement” unless you use the Neville Chamberlain definition of “negotiated”, “peace” and “settlement.”
I hope you aren’t referencing the Neville Chamberlain definition of “negotiated peace settlement”. Zelensky, and most of us, oppose that.
For the record, should Zelensky sign over mineral right to Trump?
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Zelensky should not pay off Trump in exchange for surrender to Putin.
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^^apologies for this snarky reply. I get inexcusably triggered when I see the kind of Orwellian language that has destroyed our democracy. I am certain that Trump and Putin proudly say they support a negotiated peace settlement, too. Trump is very pro-peace. But the devil is in the details.
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What kind of peace? Putin wants surrender. So does Trump.
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6 Ukrainians and an 8th of a Ukrainian left the country. Quite the feat.
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I wonder how Mexico and Canada feel about our new alliance with Russia.
The NATO issue was a poor excuse for Russia’s invasion. Russia has already gotten a longer border with NATO due to its invasion. Previously neutral Finland and Sweden joined NATO. Russia never had anything to fear from Ukraine. It wants Ukraine to be kept out of NATO not for its own security but to leave Ukraine vulnerable.
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Perfect MAGA theme song:
“Don’t know much about history, Don’t know much about biology, Don’t know much about a science book, Don’t know much about the french I took…”
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All lies, all the time. And then there’s ignorance, Trump-style.
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Breathtaking ignorance
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I thought G.W. was ignorant, but man, Trump is the poster boy for ignorance and stupidity and greed and dishonesty and narcissism and cruelty and sexism and racism and (bizarrely, given the lowlife that his is) elitism.
This is a guy who thought that stealth airplanes were actually invisible, that we could send astronauts to the sun, that we should nuke hurricanes, that the Continental Army captured the British airports, that tariffs were paid by the country on which they were levied, that Article 2 of the Constitution gives the president the power to do whatever he wants, that doctors should try injecting people with disinfectant to cure Covid. I know, this is all so batshit ignorant and stupid that any novelist who created such a character would be brought to task for creating a completely unreal character. I can image the reviews: NO ONE is that ignorant.
Well, the United States just handed breathtaking power to a guy who is that stupid.
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SPEAKING OF HISTORY: GEORGE WASHINGTON WARNED US
George Washington, our nation’s First and Second President, whom our nation honors with the title “Father of Our Nation”, warned us to guard against what is happening in America today.
In his farewell address at the end of his second term as President, Washington wrote to the nation a warning in which he said that while it is natural for people to come together in a political party, there is also an evil tendency for political parties to seek ever more power and to take revenge on political opponents in what Washington said is “alternate domination” that leads to “frightful despotism” as the lust for power “inclines the minds of men to seek…absolute power for some individual” that brings about the end of our republic.
America should have listened to its father…but who does?
So, now we are right at the place that Washington hoped would never come to: The self-righteous lust for power over people with different views and for revenge has led America to the point of no return at which millions of Americans are willing and eager to place all power in the hands of just one person.
That would make the person the King of America. The bloody American Revolution that was fought to end the rule of a king over America and to give power to the People will have been in vain.
Washington warned that if America does that, there can be no return to a republic. America will be ruled by a king who is supported by ruthless royal families (billionaires), while the rest of the ordinary People will gradually be reduced to serfs, toiling in the factories and fields, and as disposable as the garbage.
America is now at that point of no return.
Will we take the step over that cliff?
Republican politicians in Congress and in state governments will find that neither Congress nor they are needed by the King and his royals; so they too will be sent down into the ranks of the ordinary people to toil for their daily bread, where in the ranks of their fellow serfs they will be angry with themselves for having brought about their own fall…and yet, today, while they could still save themselves, they lack the courage to even save themselves from what they know is coming.
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I get it that diplomats really have to be more diplomatic than that — people who can’t bite their tongues while listening to a constant stream of lies and idiocies, much the current U.S. regime, should probably look for another line of work.
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ed: much less
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WHY are other countries obeying in advance?????
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