Writing this book manuscript has allowed me to bring together, focus and refine my ideas about Trump, the 2016 election and the country’s politics generally. It’s a bit taxing since I’m doing it during the busiest time of the four year cycle. But it’s nevertheless crystalized for me that Trumpism is basically the emergence of white nationalism and authoritarianism as the driving forces on the American right today.
Here’s the FBI’s explanation of what happened with this afternoon’s Marc Rich probe document release…
The FBI’s Records Management Division receives thousands of FOIA requests annually which are processed on a first in, first out (FIFO) basis. By law, FOIA materials that have been requested three or more times are posted electronically to the FBI’s public reading room shortly after they are processed. Per the standard procedure for FOIA, these materials became available for release and were posted automatically and electronically to the FBI’s public reading room in accordance with the law and established procedures.
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FBI cranks up long dormant twitter account with 4 am tweetstorm just in time to release case file of Marc Rich/Bill Clinton investigation.
Something very odd is happening on one of the FBI’s Twitter accounts. The account, @FBIRecordsVault was dormant for a year and just over the last two days has tweeted a flurry of Clinton related documents. More in a moment.
Update: Here’s our first write up on what we’ve learned.
A list of election/numbers observations to peruse as you bite your nails and obsess over the polls.
We’re going to be bringing you more on this through the day. But I wanted to give you a heads up. There were a number of legal developments overnight (meaning court filings and judge’s orders) about Republican poll watching and (purportedly) voter intimidation tactics in a few different parts of the country.
Violating political and constitutional norms is not only the province of Donald Trump. What is happening on the Senate side, with GOP senators making campaign promises to block ANY Hillary Clinton nominee to the Supreme Court – permanently – defies any conventional understanding of the advice and consent role.
We covered this extensively yesterday, but I’m still not sure it’s breaking through in the national political conversation.