Dan Gillmor

As you watch the Trump regime wreck everything in sight, you should be regularly asking yourself this question:

If the stated goal was to end democracy, ruin the economy, accelerate climate change, shred human rights, aid our adversaries, and steal everything in sight -- would the regime be doing anything differently?

Mar 2, 2025 at 6:41amFedica
Show threadBeggar MidasMar 2, 2025
@dangillmor If that were his goal I suspect he'd actually be doing LESS damage. He's out to pilot the works onto the rocks as expediently as he can guide it there. I'm not sure if it's vascular dementia or the murder-suicide of a dissolving marriage we're seeing here.
Show threadGary HoustonMar 2, 2025
@Beggarmidas @dangillmor perhaps they are planning to engineer a crisis and then impose martial law and put aside the constitution. But perhaps that can't be done until all the forces that could resist such a move have been dismantled.
Show threadGary HoustonMar 2, 2025
@Beggarmidas @dangillmor after that, some sort of conference to write a new constitution, with MAGA holding the majority. Also, keeping the military on side during the process by having complete control of finances and being able to hand out large bonus payments.
Show threadGary HoustonMar 2, 2025
@Beggarmidas @dangillmor funny that you can make up any crazy scenario that you like these days, and it seems just as plausible as anything else.
Show threadKid ManiaMar 2, 2025
@ghouston @Beggarmidas @dangillmor
⬆️ THIS
Show threadBeggar MidasMar 2, 2025
@ghouston @dangillmor Just like yours & everyone elses first instinct told you all along before you started mindfucking yourself into seeking depth where none was to be found....This is JUST as stupid as it seems. And that stupidity has allowed every single one of y'all to trick yourselves into vapor locking yourselves into inaction looking for wheels within wheels.
Turns out to trick this country all it takes is being dumb enough to let the smart people outsmart themselves.
Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Mar 7, 2025
@ghouston I think that's quite credible. Many examples of exactly that in the history of the world.
Show threadBeggar MidasMar 2, 2025
@ghouston @dangillmor It's nothing even that coherent. What's been fucking up people, ESPECIALLY the left wingers, DC insiders & career lifers is the fundamental incapacity to take something at its face value. Everyone is looking for 5D chess moves. But they're doing it against a blank wall, allowing them to see hints of whatever twisted game they can fucking dream up. So the only one they end up playing 5D chess against is themselves. But everyone's too busy outsmarting themselves to see it.
Show threadBeggar MidasMar 2, 2025
@ghouston @dangillmor I was being rhetorical. I know what the plan & goal is. HAVE known it since 2017. They've not even been coy about it. The goals & ambitions of political cults never varies. The path they use to get there may be, but upon achieving power primacy the next steps rarely vary. When they DO vary it's typically due to pressure from a greater or rival power. Since there is none in this case...Well, it's reverting true to form & process. As predictable as the pull of gravity.
Show threadGary HoustonMar 2, 2025
@Beggarmidas @dangillmor I think they will go for a new constitution, based on a combination of social Christian fascism and economic libertarianism. Perhaps there will still be elections, but with vetting of candidates (proving that they will uphold the values of the constitution), I think Iran gives an example.
Show threadBeggar MidasMar 2, 2025

@ghouston @dangillmor What's likely i i've taken to calling "Fiat proceeduralism". They'll honor the existing legal code as long as it justifies what they already wanted. But by his whim any of it can be superseded, ignored, or shifted to suit. Remember, they're lazy & NOT imaginative.

But he wont live much longer. Especially not with amount of Adderall he snorts to keep up the illusion. He IS all that's holding it together...& refuses to name an heir. History's shown what always follows THAT.

Show threadGary HoustonMar 2, 2025
@Beggarmidas @dangillmor I remember how quickly Pim Fortuyn's party fell to pieces after he was assassinated. But the pieces are basically still around, in mutated from.
Show threadBeggar MidasMar 3, 2025
@ghouston @dangillmor They always are. Always have been. inchoate elements all awaiting their messiah to bring them forth into their promised land. It practically defines the politics of the edge riders & perpetually disillusioned. The quiet grudges of those malingering shades that lay beyond them as well. It's constituency & membership change constantly. But their collective presence never does.
Show threadxs4me2Mar 2, 2025

@dangillmor

It’s a coup in progress… but who will stop them? Thats the more important question…

#uspol #trump #russia

Show threadSecurity Thoughts of CatsMar 2, 2025
@xs4me2 @dangillmor so far? No one.
Show threadRoryMar 2, 2025
@Kat_feelings @xs4me2 @dangillmor a revolution is called for, but no one wants to go down that route due to untold death that always comes with something this big. There's no going back to the way things were before Trump, the old system is what brought us here.
Show threadteledyn 𓂀Mar 3, 2025

@Kat_feelings @xs4me2 @dangillmor

Denmark. The last country with a sense of humour.

Seriously, #Piketty points out how (a) in global market terms almost everybody is a small player and (b) small players can have big impacts manipulating tax havens. Trouble is (c) support for trumpism directly correlates with wealth.

Show threadcefalo cristianMar 2, 2025
@dangillmor direi che quelli precedenti non erano certo meglio se hanno finanziato per 350 milioni di soldi vostri un inutile guerra, la pace costa molto meno.
Show threadOptimistic MoronMar 2, 2025
@dangillmor
I know - they would have hired more competent less noisy assholes.
Show threadVirginicusMar 2, 2025
@dangillmor They may want to shrink the economy to the point that men can do all the jobs and women keep house and rear children.
Show threadChristian Kent   𝘊𝘒 :＼﹥Mar 2, 2025
@dangillmor @bespacific That CO2 chart ain’t bending down … what’s the goal? 1,000ppm? 2,000ppm? Academic test scores go down at 1,000ppm. If you want to lower the human race’s total IQ, keeping burning coal and oil and gas. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRLFW2hd_oaP4m2T5ahdUdaQBL6QwUHSjVVyA9FzhESKPMf72v38G4MVD73&s=10
Show threadTwobiscuits🚴‍♂️ Mar 2, 2025
@dangillmor If they were really stable geniuses, I think they'd be going about it a little more subtly. They seem to be cruising for a huge backlash – which gives me hope. Y'all the people deserve better and I trust you’re gonna demand better, in ways they can’t stop.
Show threadSensitivityiMar 2, 2025
@dangillmor and we will all just keep working and spending until there is nothing left to work for I fear.
Show threadRonSupportsYouMar 2, 2025
@dangillmor Your excellent words here could be improved on by adding RFK Jr.'s contribution to the spread of disease, including his decisions concerning vaccines.
Show threadSeb 🇺🇦Mar 2, 2025
@dangillmor same logic applies to fact checking the statement "Is Trump is a Russian asset?"
Show threadLJMar 2, 2025

@docteurslump @dangillmor No nothing different except with the addition of revenge. Trump would simple be another Hitler.

This is what the world Atlas says about him: Adolf Hitler is famously known for initiating WW II. He was the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, more commonly known as the Nazis. The party was founded on racist antisemitism, expansionist nationalism, and anti-immigrant hostility.

Where I have recently encountered that?

Show threadKris Mitka  Mar 2, 2025
@dangillmor yes; and those differences are the things not publicly visible that they are probably also doing.
Show threadFleur BergmanMar 2, 2025
@dangillmor Differently than...?
Show threadꟻꟻAИ ᗡAT // moved, see profileMar 3, 2025
@dangillmor more worried that those aren't the goals but rather milestones
Show threadSteve HerseyMar 3, 2025

@dangillmor

That question has been answered quite emphatically, so there's no need to ask myself again. It walks like a Nazi, acts like a Nazi, and salutes like a Nazi. It's a Nazi.

We MAY be able to throw these Nazis out of office at the next election, but let's face facts. The US is finished as a major world power. No one will trust our military support, our policies, or our information security again; our financial institutions are swiftly being made corruption-friendly, and enforcement of federal regulations is being politicized for corrupt exploitation and vendettas.

The NIH and CDC are being destroyed, databases deleted, and PubMed tampered with. We'll be a medical-research pariah within months at this rate. Let's not even talk about the FDA and pharmaceuticals.

These are all things the Trumpians and their Congressional toadies can get away with, largely without being stopped by the courts.

Mind you, this is a BEST CASE outcome. The worst-case outcome is described in The Handmaid's Tale and Revolt in 2100.

Show threadJan EdenMar 4, 2025
@dangillmor With respect to these goals, the administration is doing a great job so far.
Show threadJeffy 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦 ❤️🇱🇺Mar 6, 2025
@dangillmor bigger cheers from all the same people. Less talk of “in the next 4 years”
Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Mar 7, 2025
@dangillmor If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck ... etc