“Trump was taking a record number of votes” says Johnson, and the switching of votes from Trump to Biden was not enough to definitely deliver the “victory” to the democratic candidate.

The US embassy in Rome allegedly involved in the hacking attack

At that point, Rome went on

Those dismayed at what is evidently considerable support for Trump must remember that fascism isn't a fad. It takes time to grow. It's been growing a long time. It will take a long time to root out. This will be the work ahead, even if Trump holds on for now. 1/

I think, too, we shld see past 1:1 conflation of American racism w/ fascism. Former is prerequisite of latter. It's always been there. Fascism hasn't. Fascism is racism surging *&* converging w/ multiple tributaries of violence (fantasy & fact), grievance, & personality cult.

So on one hand, Trump isn't an aberration; on the other, yes, he is worse than what's come before. I believe Trumpism is an inevitability. I also believe there is real historical reason to hope that its defeat--not yet, whoever wins--is also an inevitability. 3/

There have been U.S. fascisms before. The Klan, of course, & its politicians. I think also of the 1930s New Order of Cincinnatus, which elected a governor. They rejected the sieg heil salute as "*too* fascist." Emphasis theirs. They wanted just the right amount. 4/

And there have been plenty of racists in the White House. Trumpism is different--in part because of its vile wink, its grotesque "irony." Real fascism, the metastatic kind, is marked by a perversion of wit. That's how it gathers up fellow travelers. 5/

1/Today's @bopinion post is about Trump's taxes, and what they show about how America allocates capital.

We appear to have some big problems.

2/Trump has a bunch of businesses that lose money. Our financial system has lent him money to throw into unsuccessful golf courses, hotels, and so

3/A lot of these loans are loans that Trump hasn't even paid back yet, using loopholes in the tax system to avoid paying taxes on those unpaid debts.

Why would creditors give money to a guy who wastes the money on bad businesses and doesn't even pay them back?

4/One seemingly obvious answer is that capital is just really cheap these days. Companies are able to borrow more easily than at any time in the last few decades.

5/But this presents us with a mystery.

Why hasn't an abundance of cheap capital caused the return on financial capital to fall? Interest rates are low, but stock returns have held up strongly.

1. What @WillieGeist is trying to get across to @NikemaWilliams on @Morning_Joe is that the GOP is nationalizing their message & making their message high stakes, tapping into voters anger at Trump's loss to get them to vote in a Jan. run-off & that Ds NEED TO DO THE SAME. Its

2. about giving Trump power- its about giving low-info voters, who are the bulk of the electorate motivation to cast ballots in the run-off. This is WHY turnout plummets in these things on the D side- the GOP keeps their messaging on stakes (control of the senate to fend off

3. socialism) while Ds go off into policy. That is a losing strategy. It just lost them nearly a dozen House seats & the chance to cut into partisan gerrymandering by flipping 4 state houses. They can't make that mistake here bc control of senate is everything here. If Ds have it

4. Biden can get some policy done- if Ds don't, the GOP will block everything. Biden will be a lame duck from day 1. So the message should be "hey voter, did you know you have a super vote? That's right, with your one vote, you can elect 2 senators that will give Ds control of

5. senate & with it REAL police reform. With it, Dreamers not getting deported to countries they've even been to- potentially to die from lack of insulin. With it, the power to save the pre-existing conditions coverage for millions of Americans, including Nicu babies who'd in

The media issue a scathing, well-documented look at how much money US Catholic dioceses raked in under Trump's pandemic relief initiative, and watch the response in Catholic circles, Catholic media, among many Catholic laity. /1

It's a variant of the VERY SAME response used repeatedly by Catholic leaders to exonerate top-level responsibility for priests abusing minors and going unpunished.

The typical gambit now being used to justify the lavish feeding at the Trump trough: /2

Well, maybe dioceses were grabby and did not need all that money — look at the assets they're sitting on already — but poor, struggling parishes needed that money.

As if a parish is somehow disconnected from a diocese …. As if a parish is not integrally tied to a diocese. /3

As I say, this is a variant of the argument often advanced by Catholic leaders to justify doing nothing when a priest is known to be abusing minors: Well, he's only a hired employee on a contract. What does he have to do with us, with the bishop, with the chancellor? /4

The whole Catholic governing system is set up in a way that totally integrates parishes with dioceses. No parish and no parish priest can possibly function with independence from diocesan structures. Let a parish/parish priest try that, and see how quick the reprisal is. /5