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Press Confesses They Missed Trump's Politicized Prosecutions
The same journalists who normalized Trump's past politicized prosecutions are shocked that Trump did it again with Jim Comey. Read the post: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/26/mainstream-press-confesses-they-missed-the-other-politicized-
Donald Trump will shut down the government.
Given the looming shutdown, it's time for all the lefty pundits who demanded a shutdown to actually do something to win it. Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/22/time-to-win-the-shutdown/ Support the government: https://www.empty
How Russia's 2016 Attack Led Trump to Destroy US Hegemony
The 2016 attack by Russia on the 2016 election helped US abandon rational discourse, created deep polarization, and continues to harm the US Deep State. Get the whole story: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzj-nJwdjvbfutHZdsNfOEou7UX
A Shutdown Must Be Tied to a Strategy to Fight Fascism
While much of the left is pushing for a shutdown later this month, almost none are talking about how a shutdown ties to any articulable strategy to fight fascism. Indeed, the hope it will be an "attentional" event simply outsources the agen
A Tale of Two Governors
JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom both gave press conferences showing that Trump's attempts to invade their states is about authoritarianism, not law enforcement. But Newsom's effort more successfully exposed Trump's authoritarian spectacle. Rea
Big Balls Has Unfettered Access to Our Social Security Data
In June, Republicans on the Supreme Court lifted a stay, giving DOGE access to all Americans' Social Security records. Then, DOGE gave Ed "Big Balls" Coristine -- a guy with ties to criminal hackers -- access to that. Read more: https://www
The Conspiracy Theory that Got NSA's Top Math Whiz Purged
Tulsi Gabbard just stripped the security clearances of 37 intelligence officials, including one of the NSA's top math whizzes. Her excuse for doing so stems from conspiracy theories invented by a disgruntled whistleblower. Watch this: https
Stop Looking for a F@%king Pee Tape!
We know why Vladimir Putin has leverage over Trump, and it's not the goddamned pee tape. Trump has survived for the last eight years--not just the Russian investigation, but his first impeachment, his second impeachment, January 6, stealing
How a Batshit Letter May Help Trump Bankrupt America
Solicitor General John Sauer wrote a batshit letter to the appeals court reviewing Trump's tariffs. It's little more than Trump's Truth Social posts slapped on a page -- not even on DOJ letterhead! But here's why it might work with SCOTUS.
John Durham's Show Trials: A Preview of Coming Attractions
The ways in which John Durham sustained his prosecutions of Michael Sussmann and Igor Danchenko even after concluding that the theory of his case was actually Russian disinformation provide a good sense of how Pam Bondi plans to do it going
The Secrets Trump's Spies Share with Putin's Spies
Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and John Ratcliffe share a secret with Vladimir Putin's spies: There's an email redacted in the classified Durham appendix that makes it clear that Hillary Clinton didn't frame Trump, Russian spies framed Hillary.
John Durham's Crime
Back in 2021, John Durham discovered that both prongs of his investigation into Hillary Clinton -- that Hillary Clinton had a plan to smear Donald Trump, and that the FBI got notice of that -- were false. He also had to have known that Kash
How Trump Wants to Solve His Ghislaine Maxwell Problem
Marcy Wheeler looks deeper into news that Trump's former defense attorney, now the deputy attorney general, will reach out to Ghislaine Maxwell. She lays out how Trump is orchestrating a cover-up scheme to protect himself from damaging Epst
Trump's Trolls' Turn
Marcy Wheeler digs deeper into the Catturd Deficit that allows white supremacists to use Xitter to rig the news. Then she looks at how Trump's illegal war on Iran has created unprecedented fractures in his base, from Russian useful idiots l
The Catturd Deficit
Marcy discusses how Twitter became Elon's Machine for Fascism and how we can use it against the fascists.
AGENT MUSK: The Best Legal Hope to Take Down DOGE
A quick update from Marcy. Get the whole story at https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/03/19/the-significance-of-amy-gleasons-fabulous-disappearing-act/
Ball of Ka$h — A Conclusion
Marcy Wheeler ties it all together. In this last bonus episode of Ball of Thread, Marcy explains how the confirmation of Ka$h Patel and the Trump administration's abandonment of Ukraine confirm the big ideas behind Ball of Thread. Eight yea
13| The Grievance Myth
The final Ball of Thread answers how Donald Trump won and defeated the rule of law, for now. His grievance myth. That's how he got here. That's why we must expect retribution next. The series will conclude with a final bonus episode, "So Le
12 | The Meaning of January 6th
Donald Trump will never accept losing anything – whether an election or a bet. But that wouldn't matter if he didn't convince millions of Americans to make his grievances their own. This Ball of Thread unwinds what made the pincer attack th
What You Miss About Hunter's Pardon If You Sniff Dick Pics
In this bonus episode, Marcy saves reporters a lot of work by explaining more than a half dozen direct political interventions into Hunter's prosecutions. The reporting on Hunter Biden's pardon shows just how badly Ball of Thread is needed—
11 | The Packaging of Hunter
After Bill Barr buried the Mueller Report and went to work suffocating the remaining prosecutions in the Russia investigation, Donald Trump and his "lawyer," Rudy Giuliani, shifted their main narrative focus from Hillary Clinton to Hunter B
10 | Selling Justice
What if the President of the United States was framed with the help of the Attorney General of the president he defeated, and nobody cared? In this Ball of Thread, Marcy Wheeler reveals how Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Guiliani, s
9 | Durham Descends
John Durham was given an impossible job. Even before the Mueller Report was ready, Bill Barr hired the once-respected US Attorney to investigate how the investigation into the Trump Campaign's ties to Russia started. After the Inspector Gen
8| Zombie Mueller
Bill Barr killed the Mueller Report. He made sure Congress would not take it as an impeachment referral, which is what appears to have been. But he wasn't done. That's because the suspected crimes the Mueller team found wouldn't stay dead.
7| Barr's Butchery
Want to know more? Join https://www.patreon.com/BallofThread for bonus episodes on breaking news and to ask your questions, which could be answered in a bonus episode. For as little as $1 a month, you can support us and help spread the word
6| The Mueller Referral
Robert Mueller had just 22 months to persuade Trump's aides to cooperate against him. Just 22 months to learn whether Russia had asked for sanctions relief and to carve up Ukraine in exchange for help getting Trump elected. Had the House us
Bonus Episode: Endangering Trump
This is a special free bonus episode of Ball of Thread related to the hack of Donald Trump's campaign and the genuine threats to his life. To get your questions answered, support this podcast, and access all of the bonus episodes related to
5| Taking Out the FBI
We don't need to guess how Project 2025 could wreck the government. We just need to look at what Donald Trump has already done to pervert and decimate the FBI. In this Ball of Thread, Marcy ties together a vast net of threads to explain how
4| Devin Nunes' "Collusion"
On March 22, 2017, Devin Nunes went to the White House to announce his "concerns" about intelligence gathering on the Trump transition team. This began a multi-year scandal that saw House Republicans picking up Paul Manafort's plan to discr
3| The birth of Trump's Deep State obsession
You may have watched Donald Trump speak directly into a camera and ask Russia for some specific help to win the 2016 election and wondered, "What the hell is going on here?" So did Australian diplomat Alexander Downer. That's because Downer
