Dan GillmorMar 2, 2025

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?

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 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 But by his whim any of it can be superseded, ignored, or shifted to suit.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 Houston
@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.
Mar 2, 2025 at 10:04pmWeb
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.