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

1. Ok, I'm liking @RepSeanMaloney

"I sure as hell didn't win 5 Xs as a gay guy in a Trump district"

Much more imp he just correctly pointed out that even liberal MSNBC gives the GOP a major assist by constantly talking about Defund the Police, socialism, & intraparty fighting

2. and @JoeNBC is right, in my "modernized moderates" plan, you have to have these candidates go on offense. Its CRAZY that @SpanbergerVA07 is defending her record as a moderate when she's running against an ideologue in Nick Freitas.

If you ask the wrong questions & ask them

3. the wrong way, the evidence & data will screw you. Such as it did in 2020 because there is no reality in which Dem congressional/senate candidates were well-served by pulling out all their registration and in-person voter contact while the GOP was doing it. It was a bold

4. decision that someone, looking at the weak or inconsistent findings of research on effects of GOTV and esp the diff between in-person and "remote" forms and decided "you know, there is likely no diff from in-person and remote & in fact, remote you can contact WAY more people."

5. And the fact is, maybe this is right. Maybe the Ds total bomb on the congressional map has nothing to do with the decision to suspend the field programs of the House & Senate campaigns. Maybe. I'll be interested in the analysis when the voter file is updated I'll be looking at

1) Statement from the Trump Campaign

🚨 UPDATE 🚨

Let me make something crystal clear:

No one is trying to undue the just results of a fair & impartial election, regardless of its winner.

Fact.

However, this is not simply about "every vote being counted."

Let me be honest
Everything may seem calm, but you need to know exactly what we have ahead of us.

There seem to be two paths ahead, and choosing each one raises huge issues that are just as important in nature.
Read more ..

@realDonaldTrump @LLinWood @SidneyPowell1 @Raiklin

And now Bye Bye Trump, the intruder who brought wealth to the US and some peace to the world.
By Maria Giovanna Maglie

"We did what we came for and that is to establish that power in America belongs to the people."
The legacy of President Donald Trump should be an important..1/

1. - Meat Loaf comms

01/04/2021 Ivanka Trump causes confusion by mistakenly tagging Meat Loaf instead of her Father in

Let's discuss all of this and take potential arguments and put them out there, and then, for a second, discuss how bad it is that we have to do this.

Someone here, and I cannot find your post, so that's on me; come claim your genius prize, called Trump "Schrodinger's President"

This is because he simultaneously sick and not sick, very ill and mildly ill, all of it, at the same time.

So, scenario 1: He's really sick. In this scenario, we have a really sick fool who didn't wear a mask and who infected basically an entire garden party.

In this scenario, with claims by unreliable liars (including him), everyone got sick and one guy, Grassley, is refusing to test because he wants that judiciary committee to have a quorum.

In this scenario, McConnell, a corrupt a-hole is pulling the Senate until the 18th, to avoid voting on a bill to help ppl in distress but also to protect Senate leaders, except the judiciary committee. Which is convening on the 12th to destroy rights and access to healthcare.

In this scenario, Trump is really sick or very sick or mildly ill, depending on whether you believe the nervous looking doctors on the podium surrounded by goons in white coats who look like bouncers, not physicians.

It's trendy to suggest that Trump's attempt at stealing the election has finished off what was left of our democracy. But after everything we've been through in the past four years, I just don't buy that his endgame has been any more harmful than the rest of what he's done to us.

First of all, Trump DID manage to rig the 2016 election. The media largely swept that inconvenient fact under the rug when the evidence started to emerge shortly after he "won" because they were too excited at the ratings that a Trump presidency would give them.

But the reality is that Trump's successful theft of the 2016 election was obviously more harmful to the sanctity of our democracy than his failed theft of the 2020 election. It's just that the media now wants to get ratings out of his failed 2020 attempt.

Trump has spent four years systematically chewing at the fabric of every aspect of our democracy. We don't even know what our democracy is going to look like after this. His tantrum about losing, and zero-chance attempt at overturning it, is just a footnote at the end.

We've all known for four years now that if Trump lost the 2020 election, he'd try to overturn it by any illegal means possible. If you were paying attention, you also knew that if he got blown out, he would have zero chance of overturning it. This isn't some gasp-worthy surprise.

From REX:

1. As the tables turn against the Dems, it's all becoming clear.

Trump knew what the Democratic Crime Group was up to well before the election.

In hindsight, it all makes sense.

That's why Trump didn't declass. Because it didn't matter. It wouldn't have made...

All right.

We need to talk about how Trump and the GOP are marketing themselves as the Southern Fire-Eaters who spurred secession and the Civil War and how that time bizarrely mirrors our own.

Here's a taste of what I write about in AMERICAN

This ad that's making the rounds by Lauren Boebert, in which she brags about taking her gun to Congress, is not just empty posturing. It reflects a growing tension in our government that seems to be trending toward the societal discord and violence of the Civil War.

2/

The way our history is taught, the Civil War just...kind of happened. Out of nowhere. But there were many forces involved and they reflect what we're going through now.

To understand, we need to look at those forces and the people who benefited and cultivated them.

3/

Prior to the Civil War, Congress erupted into violent chaos. There were massive brawls, duels, assaults, all of it arising from the South's refusal to accept any legislation or development that didn't reflect their desires or empowerment.

4/

Members of the southern Democrats would come armed to sessions to intimidate their rivals, flashed knives and clubs and, if the process got out of control, would use them.

These threats we're seeing now have a very, very similar flavor and should concern people.

5/

I had a GREAT call with my all time favorite POTUS, President Trump!

I’m so grateful for his support and more importantly the people of this country are absolutely 100% loyal to him because he is 100% loyal to the people and America First.

Cont’d...

FIFTEEEN DAYS

You & I would've been arrested 15 days ago if we did what Trump did;

— incited a riot that escalated into a lethal terrorist attack on our nation's Capitol

You & I would have been arrested 15 days ago.

Denial of reality is unacceptable. T is a terrorist threat.

Fri Dec 4 2020
6+1+2+4+4=17=Q
@realDonaldTrump
@SidneyPowell1
@LLinWood
@GenFlynn
@DanScavino
#WeAreTheNewsNow
#DigitalSoldiers
#TheKrakenHasBeenRelease
#KrakenOnSteroids
#MAGA2020
#Freedom
#Trump2020
#FightBack
#HoldTheLinePatriots

Loyalty

Per WaPo:
Trump is working behind the scenes to create a MAGA Party
-endorsing Kelli Ward in AZ
-to primary those who voted against him
-& bc he feels the threat will give him leverage over GOP who may vote to convict

2-"In a recorded phone call, Trump offered his “complete and total endorsement” for another term for Arizona state party chairwoman Kelli Ward, a lightning rod who has sparred with the state’s Republican governor, been condemned by the business community and overseen a recent

3-"flight in party registrations. She narrowly won reelection, by a margin of 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent, marking Trump’s first victory in a promised battle to maintain political relevance and influence after losing the 2020 election.

4-"In recent weeks, Trump has entertained the idea of creating a third party, called the Patriot Party, and instructed his aides to prepare election challenges to lawmakers who crossed him in the final weeks in office,

5-"including Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.), according to people familiar with the plans.

1/ The Left DESPERATELY wants you to believe that Trumpism = domestic terrorism. As always, they provide NO proof. They will point to the Jan 6 Capitol attack, when right-wing extremists mixed with Antifa infiltrators to carry out a pre-planned attack...

the Orange Hate Goblin is RAGING like an unhinged lunatic about the #FY21NDAA
it‘s a 4,517 page bill
Why is @realDonaldTrump threatening to veto it?
-no CDA230 (LOLs)
-renaming bases

Turns out that @POTUS NEVER respected our Military or our

@POTUS if reading 4K plus pages isn’t your thing (I am not judging you I tapped out at page 389)
the Conference pushed a 15 page aka cliff notes
remember Trump is threatening to veto
“confront current & future
security challenges from China, Russia, transnational terrorism, and beyond”

@POTUS The forceful disclosure of Companies that are actually owned by China - is a really BFD (Wall St impact) prohibition of supply chain too but this is BIG
“Establishes mandatory sanctions on Turkey for its acquisition of the Russian S-400 air missile defense system”
Skyborg program

@POTUS Oh you have my attention:

“Setting up a pilot program on the use of speed-based metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of cybersecurity providers, products and technologies”
See pages 11 & 12 cyber security sections
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy -PAS

@POTUS LOL literally the last page

“commission to study and provide recommendations,
within three years, concerning the removal of names, symbols, displays, monuments, and
paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America”
See next tweet re GPS