How did authoritarianism arise in America in our time?

By tracking the gradual corruption of one man, I set out to explain how it happened: the rationales, the self-deceptions, the descent into madness.

His story is a warning. Our democracy is not safe. bit.ly/42E8GQl Graham's descent shows how a man surrenders to despotism. It takes time. A step, a rationalization. Another step, another rationalization.

The deeper you go, the more you need to justify. You say what you need to say. You believe what you need to believe. bit.ly/42E8GQl

Several weeks ago, I learned that @Citibank locks some customers out of their accounts and refuses to release their money even if they show up with ID.

This week, @Citi sent an email explicitly affirming its right to do this "without cause."

Your money is not safe at @Citi. 1/8 I wasn't aware of this policy till it happened to my son. I told the story below.

Six weeks after they locked his account, he still can't get his money.

He can handle it. But what about people who can't? Could they be evicted or lose their utilities? 2/8

https://twitter.com/saletan/status/1567315945143603204

Do you have a @Citibank account?

If so, I strongly recommend that you find an alternative. Citibank has procedures that will lock you out of all your accounts without consultation — and will bar you from regaining access for 45 days, even if you show up in person with ID. (1/9) This happened to my son. He went to another US city and tried to use his debit card. Card was declined, account was blocked.

This happens. But what happened next was Kafkaesque: @Citibank refused to accept any method of proving his identity, including showing up in person. (2/9)

Great conversation between @DrTedJ and @SarahLongwell25 on diversity, race, and gender.

Ted explains how needlessly explicit pledges to appoint based on race (e.g. Biden on KBJ) reinforce the "asterisk" that unfairly haunts promoted women and minorities. bit.ly/3vn9wSy Ted's alternative model: the NFL rule that teams must interview, not necessarily hire, a minority candidate for head coach.

Biden could do this for court and cabinet jobs, "so whoever he ends up choosing feels less like an affirmative-action hire or a racial quota fulfillment."

New ISW report: "Russian General Officers are reportedly instructi[ng] commanders to severely restrict internet access among Russian personnel ... to combat low morale."

The problem: "Ukrainian influence over the information consumed by Russian soldiers." bit.ly/3jeaRWg "Ukrainian Military Intelligence reported increasing Russian censorship...to combat growing morale problems among Russian troops. Ukraine’s GUR reported that Russian officers are intensifying censorship of their troops and restricting access to the internet due to low morale." /2

Fox News segment against booster requirements imposed by private colleges. Quote: "We now know that the vaccines do not prevent infection and transmission, so any community-spread benefit is negligible."

That is an absolute lie. This network is a menace. bit.ly/33qIn7s Antivaxers are responding to this tweet by quoting @CDCDirector in an August interview, saying vaccines don't "prevent transmission."

These people are misleading you. By "prevent," she meant 100% prevent. Vaccines strongly reduce your risk of infection. Here's what she said ...

"The committee has firsthand testimony that President Trump was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office, watching on television as the Capitol was assaulted," says @Liz_Cheney on FTN. "We know that that is clearly a supreme dereliction of duty." cbsn.ws/3qFgVdt Trump "could have simply walked a few feet to the White House briefing room," gone "on live television, and asked his supporters to stop what was happening, asked them to go home," Cheney notes.

Instead, he was "calling at least one senator, urging delay of the electoral vote."

Based on the pattern in South Africa & UK, “This is about a 2-month epidemic wave from start to finish,” says @ScottGottliebMD on FTN. NYC and other early-hit areas will peak within 2 weeks; other areas within 4 weeks. “Certainly, by the end of February, we will be through this.” Gottlieb warns less affected states that they face a "hard month ahead." We won't reach "a national peak until we get into February," he says, because "there's parts of the country that really haven't been hard-hit by Omicron yet. And the virus will spread around the country."

On ABC, Fauci summarizes the danger of Omicron:

"The mutations would strongly suggest that it would be more transmissible and that it might evade some of the protection of monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma, and perhaps even antibodies that are induced by vaccine." Stephanopoulos asks: "What do we know about how resistant [Omicron] is to the current vaccines?"

"We will know that likely within a period of about two weeks," says Fauci. "That whole process is already underway right now."

Four times at this briefing yesterday, members of the House Freedom Caucus called the Biden administration a "regime." They spoke of "the necessity to remove the leadership of this regime" and said they wouldn't "sit idly by waiting for the next election." "We were sent to Washington ... not to sit idly by waiting for the next election, and certainly not to put up with an inept, weak, and incapable regime," said @RepBoebert. "This regime, so-called administration, has been all about America-last policies."

Putin has a crucial weapon as he takes on Biden: The Republican Party.

This article examines years of polling. It shows how Trump turned the GOP against NATO and made it friendlier to Russia.

That weakens Biden's hand against Putin. And Putin knows it. bit.ly/3wxBevh "In two polls taken this week — one by Morning Consult for Politico, the other by YouGov for the Economist — Putin has a better net favorable rating among Republicans than Biden does, by margins of 16 and 22 points." bit.ly/3wxBevh

Based on this @stphnfwlr analysis of the GA elections law, here's my list of which parts are good, bad, fine, or overhyped, based on my biases that 1) easier voting is good, 2) partisan control is bad, and 3) ID is a reasonable and manageable concern... /1 bit.ly/31Lkbbs Bad stuff:
- shorter window to request absentee ballot
- later mailing of absentee ballots
- limiting drop boxes (The stated concern is security, but this is already addressed by moving them inside voting sites)
- shorter runoffs, which could limit the window for early voting /2

The new US intel report on the 2020 election — written by people who worked under Trump — destroys his lies about election fraud and Chinese interference. And it exposes him, in effect, as a Russian asset.

Here's a short thread with the key findings ... bit.ly/38VjgsC The main conclusion mirrors 2016: "Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party [and] supporting former President Trump."

But there's more to the story.

Chris Wallace: "Does Donald Trump bear any responsibility for the attack on the Capitol?"

@LindseyGrahamSC: "No. In terms of the law, no... The speech on Jan. 6 was not an incitement ... I don't think he caused the riot ... Did he incite this riot by his speech? Absolutely not." Graham on the case against Trump: "The trial record was a complete joke, hearsay upon hearsay."

On @HerreraBeutler's story that Trump, during the riot, said the attackers cared more about the election than McCarthy did: "It doesn’t tell me a whole lot, because it’s all hearsay."

On Fox, @Liz_Cheney says even if senators don't convict Trump, the "criminal investigation" of Jan. 6 will examine, e.g., "whether the tweet that he sent out calling Vice President Pence a coward while the attack was underway ... was a premeditated effort to provoke violence." /1 Cheney unloads: "The extent to which the president, President Trump, for months leading up to Jan. 6, spread the notion that the election had been stolen, or that the election was rigged, was a lie. ... We need to make sure that we as Republicans are the party of truth." /2

Does NYT apply consistent standards when evaluating alleged racial or sexual misconduct? Or does it switch standards based on internal pressure?

Regardless of what the right standard is, these cases suggest pressure, not principle, is driving outcomes. /1 nyti.ms/36MoAgU McNeil says he used a slur only in the context of attributing it to someone else, and only when that incident was raised by another person.

I don't know how accurate that account (below) is. But after hearing it and other evidence, @deanbaquet decided he shouldn't be fired. /2

Birx confirms on FTN that the White House censored her on COVID: "I was not able to do national press."

@margbrennan: "Do you think the administration was suppressing vital information to win the election?"

Birx: "I don’t know what their motivation was." cbsn.ws/39bjbSc Birx says she and her HHS aide were the "only two people who regularly wore a mask in the White House."

She says she knew the US was repeating a mistake from the HIV epidemic: "If you’re only looking for sick people, you miss a lot of what is really happening under the surface."

Highlights from NYT's big COVID story:

1) After Atlas arrived in August and said COVID deaths were overstated, Trump "often [told] aides that the real number of dead was no more than 10,000."

He dismissed about 95% of attributed deaths as fake news. /1 nyti.ms/3hEjRCj 2) Azar, Kushner, Hicks, and pollster Tony Fabrizio lobbied Trump to wear and promote masks. They showed him evidence that masks worked and that Republicans supported mask mandates.

Who talked Trump out of it? Meadows and Stephen Miller. They told him, "The base will revolt." /2

The GOP is in the grip of insurrectionists. It's controlled by a president who's trying to overthrow an election, and a base that's rallying in streets to threaten coups and civil war.

The match hasn't been struck yet. But here are some warning signs. /1 bit.ly/33LEpDd The president has demanded direct intervention in the election:

- “STOP THE COUNT!”
- Millions of votes for Biden, because they were counted outside the view of GOP partisans, must be nullified
- “the results of the individual swing states must be overturned ... immediately.” /2

"Close the bars and keep the schools open," says Fauci on @ThisWeekABC. "The default position should be to try... to keep the children in school or to get them back to school. ... If you look at the data, the spread among children and from children is not really very big at all." .@margbrennan: "Are you asking governors to close the bars to keep schools open? Is that your advice?"

Birx doesn't say yes. She says where cases and hospitalizations are high, the first places to close are those "where people cannot wear masks," i.e., "bars and... restaurants."

"Don’t talk to me that way! You’re just a—you’re just a lightweight! ... I’m the president of the United States! Don’t ever talk to the president that way!”

Today at the White House, Trump had one of the saddest meltdowns you'll see by a public figure. /1 bit.ly/33kyGE1 Trump rejected the election:

"It was a rigged election, 100%."
"This election was a fraud."
"Joe Biden did not get 80 million votes."
"I got 74 million, but there were many ballots thrown away. So I got much more than that."
"At the highest level, it was a rigged election." /2