Thread.

The new revelations this week—the FBI agent text messages, the fact that FBI knew Steele memo was based in large part on a suspected Russian spy—aren’t really new. They just document, in a more direct and detailed way, what was happening at the time.

Broad outline’s been clear for yrs. What’s wild is how successful the operation was w/half the nation, especially among professional classes & upper middles, many of whom still believe Trump was a Russian agent—& now believe he is prepping to refuse to transfer power if he loses.

I was leaving DC years ago when enough of the fact pattern had been revealed/I’d spoken w/enough people to make the reality clear to me—what the intelligence community had done for political reasons against a domestic political opponent, etc. As the plane took off I felt sick.

All the monuments, buildings, and everything I loved my whole life about the district and this nation seemed hollow and corrupt. The very stones were rotten. This was the stuff of banana republics. The practical rot had gone far deeper than anyone imagined.

And it was unlikely that it could be brought back, or dragged into the light.

There is an evergrowing frenzy in the air.

Such desperate maneuvers can’t easily be put back into the bottle anymore than ongoing gaslighting about riots, increasing punishment by force of law agnst anyone who dares defends themselves agnst mob, & the years of agit-prop most people have been taught about race and crime.

But it doesn’t change the necessity of trying to do what needs doing. The release of this info this week is another small step in that direction.