I’m actually seeing a bit of Argentina stuff since it’s often alphabetically in the same folders as Brazil. I’m in the 1970s today so I’ll try to get impressions where I can.

But since they performed the search I have no way of knowing if there’s another cache of super-sensitive material they’re deliberately holding back. I will say that they clearly didn’t go through what I ordered to remove files, given the timing of the correspondence.

Not too much postwar stuff is processed & open yet, but they are using the Nachlass of Hermann Abs as an entry point. And since he was at the heart of it all for several decades, that’s not bad! I’m working through two days’ worth of Brazil material and it’s fairly good.

In Podgorica? (Frantically googling to pretend I got the reference, but no.)

People in my book group raved about the audio version. Multiple voices _can_ be cheesy but in this case it apparently works brilliantly.

These are passing thoughts from a historian of 20th-Century Europe. I have no idea how to organize institutional memory preservation at scale. What I can say from experience is that even academic history departments are not very good at passing along accumulated knowledge! 8 & final.

Corruption will make the challenge of restoration all the harder. MAGA loyalists will cynically abuse their power to enrich themselves and form mutual back-scratching networks. Outside interested parties will continue to offer bribes, given that such behavior is becoming normalized. 7/

In effect, what we're dealing with is a wave of refugees from a foreign-occupied capital. We need to know what they know, so that after DC has been "recaptured," there will be some way to return to accountable governance. 6/

One information nexus will be the government's on-staff historians (also fired?), though they may not have detailed knowledge of present operations. Privacy issues will arise in any recounting of paused investigations – and what to do with essential classified information? 5/

So it seems urgent to debrief the fired workers now. Hundreds, perhaps thousands. They will need time and resources – and emotional support! – to commit their agencies' procedures to paper. Who will sponsor them? Private foundations may need to "adopt" specific agencies. 4/

When the country's fever has broken – in four, eight, twelve years? – rebuilding such agencies will be a post-apocalyptic task. Nobody will be left who remembers how things used to work. Human and digital memories will have evaporated. Not enough of a paper trail any more. 3/

We have to assume that many of the most competent people staffing the federal government are already out the door, searching for new work; and that the new agency leaders of "guard rail" institutions like the DOJ, FBI, or SEC will actively prevent them from functioning. 2/