Go Stare at the Ocean
Go stare at the ocean and prepare to pick yourself back up again.
Author Archive for: emptywheel
About emptywheel
Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial.
Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.
Entries by emptywheel
Republicans Get to Chew on Matt Gaetz for Two Months and a Week
/208 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelSure, Matt Gaetz is the worst possible pick to be Attorney General. But there are some upsides to Trump having picked the worst possible pick, especially early enough to give Republicans two months to pick him apart.
The Orbanization of US Politics Began Years Ago
/66 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, 2024 Election, 2024 Presidential Election, Hunter Biden/by emptywheelThe assault on civil society that we expect from a second Trump Administration already accelerated two years ago, and already had an impact on the election.
Litmus Tests Likely Explain Who the Fuck is Pete Hegseth
/80 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelTrump likely picked Pete Hegseth to run the largest military in the world because would be willing to do with it things that none of his qualified candidates would do.
Russia Attempts to Collect Its Winnings
/79 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election, emptywheel, Mueller Probe/by emptywheelRussia has been engaged in a whole bunch of dick-wagging since Trump won the election. That’s likely because the last time they helped Trump get elected, he deferred on and then failed to deliver his side of the bargain.
How Garland-Whinger Ankush Khardori’s Willful Impotence Helps Trump Evade Accountability
/80 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election, January 6 Insurrection/by emptywheelThere’s a telling quote from Greg Sargent in his description of Kamala Harris’ difficulties in convincing voters that Trump was a bad president. Some Democrats believe that the leading pro-Harris Super PAC, Future Forward, failed to spend enough of its enormous budget on advertising early on that might have reminded voters of the horrors of […]
Two Elections: “The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check”
/196 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelThere were two elections last week. A traditional political one, in which Democrats had some down ballot successes. And a far bigger propaganda one, in which Trump — but not always the rest of his party — had tremendous success.
Fridays with Nicole Sandler
/29 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelWe talk a miserable election loss.
Jack Smith Asks for Three Weeks
/32 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelJack Smith has asked for three weeks — until December 2 — to inform Judge Tanya Chutkan what they plan to do with the January 6 case going forward.
The Legal Cases Implicating Donald Trump’s Conduct That Won’t Go Away [Because of His Election]
/42 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelBy dint of his twin prosecutions, Hunter Biden has what virtually no one else in the country will be able to get now: standing to raise questions about Donald Trump’s conduct.