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
Marko Elez “Resigned” the Day His Write Access to Payment Systems Was Discovered
/41 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election, DOGE, Trump 2.0/by emptywheelBecause Marko Elez resigned the same day WSJ asked Treasury about racist social media comments, it has been assumed that that was why he quit. But that’s just based on correlation, not any proof of causation. So we can’t rule out that he quit because Treasury discovered he had more access than they intended to give him.
Rule of Law: Don’t Obey in Advance, But Also Don’t Give Up in Advance
/72 Comments/in emptywheel/by emptywheelJD Vance might well like to simply ignore Judge Engelmeyer’s order. Trump might want to start siccing his mob when judges make adverse rulings. But there are good reasons to believe that that won’t happen, yet. And until then, this legal process is a tool that can be used to buy time and hem in Trump’s mob.
Trump Stewing because of Lies Stephen Miller Fed Him During the Campaign
/77 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election, Immigration/by emptywheelTrump is furious that his thugs can’t fulfill his promises of mass deportation. But those failures arise not through want of trying. Rather, those failures stem from the fact that reality in no way matches the hellhole Miller pitched for Trump, the imaginary hellhole Miller used to get voters afraid enough to vote for Trump.