Notices by Dan Gillmor (dangillmor@mastodon.social), page 4

One of our most important tasks in saving American democracy is to help the wider public understand this: When the Trump regime's masked immigration thugs injure or kill people, as is becoming more common, government statements about what happened are likely to be lies.

https://www.404media.co/dhs-is-lying-to-you-about-ice-shooting-a-woman/

Trump's deranged Christmas message is a reminder that if you put Dear Leader into a room with decency, you'd get a matter-antimatter explosion.

Trump, Musk, Rubio, and their henchmen destroyed USAID -- directly causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, mostly children. The apparatchiks celebrated while bosses lied about what they'd done.

I can't overstate my incandescent rage at these monstrous people.

https://www.propublica.org/article/usaid-cholera-deaths-trump-humanitarian-aid-cuts-south-sudan

#pitchforks

O hive mind: Can you point me to 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organizations that are explaining the depth and breadth of Trump world corruption? The "mainstream" press is doing such an abysmal job on this, and I want to donate to journalists who get why this is so important to flag for public notice.

Trump regime wants to force ALL visitors to the U.S. to install government-controlled spyware on their phones, and submit detailed personal data -- even DNA, apparently -- to the authorities.

(If they're trying to wreck tourism, including the World Cup, this is the way.)

https://papersplease.org/wp/2025/12/10/cbp-wants-all-visitors-to-install-and-use-its-smartphone-app/

“I understand I’m just an independent developer—the kind of person Google doesn’t care about" -- developer whose accounts were wiped by Google for what the company later, but only after being contacted by a journalist, admitted was an unfounded, machine-decided "violation".

https://www.404media.co/a-developer-accidentally-found-csam-in-ai-data-google-banned-him-for-it/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter&attribution_id=6939854c7ce61e0001620dc5&attribution_type=post

All corruption, all the time in Trump world. Trump's sons (including/especially the youngest) helped get one of most vile people on the planet out of legal trouble. Fine NYT reporting here:

https://archive.md/uAYtL

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has posted one of his most important pieces, in which he brings historical context to the ascendance -- and profound malignity -- of the ultra-wealthy who are on the verge of destroying us. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/will-the-21st-century-nabobs-win-their-war-on-public-accountability/sharetoken/aa705d17-c630-40b7-bba9-752e489e3638

#pitchforks

For those who fret about the future of CNN under Ellison/Saudi/Trump or as a Netflix spin-off, the channel's deal with a Trump-connected online betting operation gives you a sense of CNN's commitment to honorable news coverage. It leaves me with increasing doubt.

https://news.kalshi.com/p/kalshi-cnn-prediction-market-partnership

Betting <1 percent of the population knows that a manifestly corrupt "industry" bought itself a Congress that puts cryptocurrency holders first in line -- ahead of you and your money -- if there's a run on your bank. Yep, you're subsidizing the sleaziest speculators.

https://mastodon.social/@SeanCasten/115678753302203662

In a preview of his next book, Cory Doctorow explains of where the "AI" business is taking us -- nowhere good -- and how we can fight its most malevolent impacts: https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble/#u-washington

The section on copyright is, for artists, particularly important.

Resale values of Teslas are in the depths for all kinds of reasons, but the central one -- apart from the taint of Musk -- is that the cars are ridiculously crappy and unreliable as they age. https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/old-teslas-falling-apart

Just one more reason to avoid this toxic brand at all costs.

Did any major journalism treat the ludicrous FIFA-Trump "peace prize" with the LOL contempt it deserved? Links?

I retired from teaching 18 months ago, in part because it was becoming clear to me that the "AI" industry was undermining education in profound ways. This essay makes a convincing case that LLMs are a plague on learning -- and, not incidentally, higher education. https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-destroying-the-university-and-learning-itself

All corruption, all the time, everywhere in Trump world. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/nov/30/all-the-presidents-millions-how-the-trumps-are-turning-the-presidency-into-riches

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Marco Rubio gave orders leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of human beings, most of them children. These three "leaders" killed USAID, and in the process ordered those deaths.

A crime against humanity, IMO.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/the-shutdown-of-usaid-has-already-killed-hundreds-of-thousands

The endless saga continues: Bigger news outlet pretends it's breaking a story that was reported earlier by someone else, often a solo publisher.

It's grossly unethical -- and it's so common that journalists take it for granted. They should take the honorable path.

https://dysruptionhub.com/opinion-when-local-tv-breaks-the-story-you-already-reported/

The Atlantic magazine aspires to be one of the top places to find quality information. It often is. But it needs to apologize for its role during the early Covid years, when it published BS -- and helped pave the way for RFKjr et al to wreck the public health system.

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/if-the-atlantic-wishes-to-write-more-about-the-origins-of-maha-it-will-be-brave-enough-to-turn-it-spotlight-on-itself/

I've been fanboy of technology for decades. All those years of following and writing about it never changed that.

But while I could always appreciate, and often celebrate, the achievements of some of the people who created things, I was never a fan of their industry. Its growth and power came with a massive increase in arrogance and abuse.

If we don't get a handle on this, everything good about tech will be subsumed by the bad.

Just in case you had the slightest doubt about what Elon Musk is doing with X/Twitter, look at this brief thread. He is one of the true monsters of our era, and he uses X/Twitter to guide his fellow right-wing extremists to ever-more-extreme places.

If you are still there, you should be ashamed.