Jeff Bezos’ Manifesto of Impotence
Reality is in fact on the ballot this year, the race remains neck and neck, and you, Jeff Bezos, decided to go down without a fight.
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
Jack Smith’s Delicate Treatment of BadgerPundit Kenneth Chesebro
/38 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, January 6 Insurrection/by emptywheelJack Smith appears to have interviewed Kenneth Chesebro. But that doesn’t mean his testimony is all that reliable.
The Media Started Capitulating to Trump with Russia Russia Russia
/90 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, 2020 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election, Hunter Biden/by emptywheelThe media’s capitulation to Donald Trump is not new. They started down this path when they allowed Trump to claim that the very productive Russian investigation was just a big hoax, and on that manufactured grievance build a fascist movement.
Fridays with Nicole Sandler
/80 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelDespair is not an option.
If Putin Is Running Musk, Trump Should Be Terrified
/139 Comments/in 2024 Election, Russian hacks/by emptywheelElon Musk’s reported ties to Vladimir Putin and other top Russians are more of a concern because of Musk’s willingness to use Xitter to stoke violence and JD Vance’s centrality in Musk’s role on Trump’s campaign.
Woodward Book: Joe Biden’s “Dementia” Tracked His Stress about Hunter Biden
/64 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelEven though Bob Woodward’s book describes it explicitly, Dick Pick Sniffers like Alex Thompson seem to have missed the import of the observation, attributed to Tony Blinken, that guilt about Hunter’s plight turned Joe Biden into an emotional wreck.
The Disappearing Cheshire Cat I Found in the Rabbit Hole Where Lee Chatfield Was Hiding
/97 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election, emptywheel/by emptywheelAfter I set off searching for Lee Chatfield’s interview with Jack Smith, I also discovered 30-some pages of a Ronna McDaniel interview and a very specific ask that Michigan Republicans throw out my vote for Joe Biden.
Ball of Thread: Zombie Mueller
/17 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, 2020 Presidential Election, Mueller Probe/by emptywheelBill Barr’s efforts to kill the parts of the Mueller investigation that continued after he misrepresented the Report ended up laying the foundation for January 6.
When an Older White Catholic Man Admits, “This Toxicity that Exists Is Really Embarrassing”
/120 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelI don’t know whether Kamala Harris’ campaigning on a Constitution over party pitch with Liz Cheney will work. I don’t know if it’ll be enough to win this election. What I do know is that neither Harris nor Cheney are mistaking the enormity of the task, of trying to break the authoritarianism of a party that has overwhelmed voters with a blanket of disinformation and dehumanization.
So Help Me God: Lawyers, Encryption, and Insurrection
/6 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election, January 6 Insurrection/by emptywheelVolume III of the Appendix to Jack Smith’s immunity brief starts with what are likely texts obtained from Mike Roman and Boris Epshteyn’s phones, both of which were seized in September 2022. There are reasons to suspect that Smith faced a delay in accessing texts from both those phones.