Note on the FBI – by Matt Taibbi – Racket News

A big reason for the divide was the inability of old liberal outlets to grasp the enormity of what took place in the Trump-Russia investigation, which featured giant-scale versions of such old FBI standbys as warrantless surveillance, political spying, and planting false media reports. I know, because I still talk to some of them, that more than a few of the headline liberal thinkers of the Bush era have seen through the Trump-is Putin s-agent nonsense since at least the release of the Mueller report. But the rank-and-file Democrats of this era still believe it as gospel, and simply can t grasp that the FBI became so high on its own supply, it took it upon itself to disrupt its own boss, the President of the United States.

Unless you think the FBI really believed Trump was in league with Russia (and as the Bell Tolls article explains, the record leaves little doubt the Bureau knew early on that premise was nonsense), there s no other explanation for its conduct in the Trump era. A massively empowered national police organization that considers the elected head of the Executive Branch to be a criminal target in need of disrupting and discrediting, the way Hoover went after the Revolutionary Action Movement or the Nation of Islam, is by definition an illegal/subversive organization that needs to be dismantled and rebuilt with a much narrower mission. That s a priority everyone should believe in, irrespective of political belief. My guess is it will take time for most Democrats to see this, and of course the whole apple cart will be upended if the Trump administration takes missteps that create a political pretext for re-empowering the bad actors.

via www.racket.news