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
How Not to Lose a World War between Authoritarianism and Democracy
/215 Comments/in Russo-Ukrainian War/by emptywheelVladimir Putin prefers authoritarianism because its easier to coerce legitimacy than negotiating it. That’s true. It would be far easier if Biden could order China to stay out, if Biden could order Germany to buy off on greater financial sanctions, if Biden could ignore right wing efforts to use financial stress to undermine his Administration.
He can’t. That’s what makes defending democracy all that more difficult.
Rudy Giuliani Attacks Biden as SDNY Sifts Through His Comms for Ukraine Foreign Agent Investigation
/62 Comments/in emptywheel/by emptywheelTrump was not serious about Ukraine. He viewed it as nothing more than a political football. Almost his entire party backed him in that effort.
And his former attorney, wailing on Twitter about the ‘CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER” posed by “mentally deteriorating [men], who [were] of limited intelligence even before [] dementia” remains under criminal investigation as an unregistered agent of Russian-backed Ukrainians for his role in politicizing Ukraine.
Judge Mehta Observes that Roger Stone’s Role on January 6 “May Prove Significant in Discovery”
/96 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, emptywheel, January 6 Insurrection/by emptywheelJudge Amit Mehta is probably the person most familiar with what DOJ has learned of Roger Stone’s interactions with the Oath Keepers on January 6. And in rejecting Trump’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit for his role in inciting the riot, Mehta suggested that, Discovery might prove [Roger Stone’s ties to the militias] to be an important one.”