Emptywheel Friday: Klan Act Lawsuits, Chicago's Reckoning, and Georgia's Ask

It's Emptywheel Friday, and Marcy Wheeler is here to connect the dots on a week that kept piling up. We open with two new lawsuits from Renee Good's family, one a wrongful death claim and one under the 1871 Klan Act that names Jonathan Ross, several Trump administration officials, and a list of alleged co-conspirators. Marcy explains why the Klan Act is such an interesting tool, and how a new suit from the Chicago protesters Benny Johnson called "domestic terrorists" fits the same story.

Then we get into the Broadview case, where Judge April Perry held a hearing that Marcy says may point toward contempt or a special prosecutor, and DOJ's judicial complaint against Judge Patrick Schiltz, which Marcy says presents paraphrases as quotes. We cover Georgia's election board asking DOJ to intervene, the dismissal of Davy Hearn's case, and the Time interview with Trump and the AI summit that followed.

Marcy also walks through polling that suggests many 2024 Trump voters are misremembering their votes, why Texas border districts are moving, and the Jack Smith hearing where Senator Eric Schmitt's gotcha moment went sideways. We close with a speed round and Marcy's ask: help make Trump a loser in the public mind, because it matters for what he can get away with.

Find Marcy at emptywheel.net and go support her work. The Nicole Sandler Show is independently produced and listener-supported: nicolesandler.com.

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Heather 'Digby' Parton and I go back more than 20 years, to the early days of the progressive blogosphere, and today she helps me look past the Trump spectacle to what's happening underneath it. She walks through Russ Vought's rescission and impoundment push, a test of whether the executive branch can seize Congress's power of the purse, and why the Supreme Court may get to decide it. We dig into Trump's Time interview, the Iran deal he rejected, Pete Hegseth's latest firings, and the AI (Arrogant Idiots) executives lining up at the White House.

With 33 days until the midterms, we also talk about what Democrats can realistically promise (Digby says lowering prices isn't one of them), why accountability matters, and why every vote counts against what we both see as a rigged field. Along the way: a Randy Rainbow cold open, a House Hunters-style ad that has Ken Paxton looking for a home, the news that the DOJ is reviewing the Watergate special prosecutors, and my questions about Trump's new America.gov chatbot.

Find Digby at digbysblog.net and salon.com. Tomorrow it's Emptywheel Friday with Marcy Wheeler.

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It's another Wednesday with Driftglass, and what a Wednesday it was.

 Mangy Fetlocks kicks things off with a song about Senator Eric Schmitt, who tried to spring a gotcha on Jack Smith over a basketball game and instead sprang one on himself.

Before the good stuff, it's the Mal-Lady segment: my latest medical news (carpal tunnel, an ulcer, and thankfully some very welcome benign biopsy results).

Driftglass and I break down the whole fiasco: the staffer behind him who clearly saw it coming, the TMZ follow-up, and Amy Klobuchar calmly pointing out that Smith had it right (it was the Iowa Hawkeyes, not the Atlanta Hawks). We also talk about why a blunder like this won't get the coverage it would if it had been a Democrat.

From there we roam: gas prices and the war that's making them worse, the new fuel economy standards (34.9 mpg by model year 2031, down from 50.4 under the Biden-era rules), and the midterms.

What happens the day after Democrats win? We say we fix what's broken, restore the rule of law, and own the apology to the rest of the world.

We also get into Arizona's races (including those fake "Democrats for Biggs" signs and the allegations swirling around Mark Lamb, who's running in the 5th District:), Elizabeth Lee, the Democratic nurse running against Lamb, a Kansas pastor's case against Christian nationalism, how the evangelical movement got to where it is, what billionaires and hedge funds have done to newspapers, and a bit of good news about a local paper that found a way to survive.

We close on the difference between breaking news and making sense of it, why our healthcare system doesn't look at the whole patient, and why independent, paywall-free media depends on listeners who can chip in.

Find Driftglass at driftglass.blogspot.com and the Professional Left Podcast at ProLeftPod.com.

The Nicole Sandler Show is independent and listener-supported, based at nicolesandler.com

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Jack Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the theater was almost as remarkable as the testimony. In his opening statement, Smith said the evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Donald Trump committed serious crimes, and that he'd bring the same case against a president of either party. Then came the questioning. Senator Eric Schmitt accused Smith of attending an Atlanta Hawks game and perjuring himself. Turns out Smith had gone to see the Iowa Hawkeyes play Maryland, and Senator Klobuchar had to point out the mix-up. Ted Cruz delivered a long speech about Javert, John Kennedy did his country-lawyer bit, and at one point Chairman Grassley left without putting anyone in charge.

I also share what happened when I went to the Heritage Foundation's website to link its voter fraud research and couldn't find it, why the Brennan Center's analysis of Heritage's own database is worth your time (ten in-person impersonation cases in billions of votes), my test of the new America.gov AI assistant, and a hopeful closing clip from James Talarico. Alex Lawson returns Monday, and Driftglass joins me tomorrow.

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Welcome to a new week in opposite world. I opened today's show with a video that put a smile on my face (and apologize for playing something created by AI which I said I wouldn't do). Then I got into Friday's Extreme Court shadow docket rulings: a 6-3 unsigned order letting the administration use the SAVE database to check voter rolls (which, as I explain, is a solution in search of a problem, and one that has already flagged actual citizens as non-citizens) and a third refusal to let Missouri use its redrawn congressional map. I also shared how I'm approaching my ballot, and followed up on last week's interview with Claude with some new frightening AI news out of OpenAI.

Then Dan Froomkin of Press Watch (presswatchers.org) and Heads Up News (headsupnews.org) joins me. His latest column reimagines the media's coverage of Trump's taxpayer-funded ads as if Trump had shot someone on 5th Avenue, and we talk about why the press keeps normalizing the abnormal, what a real follow-up question looks like, and what will need fixing once Trump is gone.

After Dan, it's a news roundup: the FBI's No. 2 resigns, the reaction to that "paid for by the US government" ad, the nor'easter and hurricane season, the Cornell fraternity case, the war with Iran and gas prices, and January 6th defendants suing for damages. Stick around for bonus overtime with Spocko, who calls in from the Northeast.

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It's Empty Wheel Friday, and Marcy Wheeler is here to make sense of an absolutely chaotic week.

We start with Trump's underwhelming state visit with Xi Jinping — the press bans, the Thucydides trap reference, and the trade detente that buys us two more months before the real reckoning. From there it's straight into the numbers that should terrify Republicans: diesel prices spiking, bond markets flashing warning signs, and a Senate map that now includes Kansas and maybe even Mississippi. Marcy walks through race after race — Roger Marshall's brutal OB-GYN lawsuit story, Susan Collins' bribery scandal, Mary Peltola's iguana, Sherrod Brown and the crypto money that showed up too late to do much damage.

Then we go deep on the legal front: a DOJ prosecutor in the Broadview 6 case just resigned and filed a bombshell response that puts the US Attorney at the center of the misconduct he tried to pin on her. And Marcy breaks down what she's calling Judge Aileen Cannon's "two-hat problem" — running a grand jury designed for vengeance while also enforcing her own gag order, in a case built on a legal theory so thin the 11th Circuit already rejected it back in 2022.

Forty days to the end of this election. It's going to get crazier before it gets better.

Read Marcy's work and support it at emptywheel.net.

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Today I did something I've never done before — I interviewed Claude AI, live, about all the unsettling stuff happening with AI right now (blackmail tests, hacking incidents, hallucinations nearly causing an international incident). Mixed feelings, honest conversation. Also: Trump's UN speech was something else. Tomorrow, in honor of Bruce Springsteen's 76th birthday, you'll hear my interview with Warren Zanes about the Nebraska album and movie.

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It's Constitution Day, and we're 46 days from the end of voting in the midterms. I open with YouTube's attempt to demonetize and block a Hamilton-cast get-out-the-vote video — over parody music, of all things — so I play it anyway, because getting people to check their voter registration matters more than YouTube's copyright bots. Then I dig into the "Democrats for Biggs" sign campaign spreading across Arizona: an AI-generated, deepfake disinformation operation from Turning Point USA meant to trick voters into thinking Democrats are backing Andy Biggs for governor. It's fake, their signs are everywhere in my neighborhood and I want to know if I can legally do something about it (a caller sets me straight).

Then Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Kaufman — director of the School of Journalism at Northeastern University — joins me to talk about his new book, When America Roared: How the 1980s Saved, Then Broke, The Country --and Led Us To Today. We trace how Reagan-era decisions on media deregulation, the Fairness Doctrine, and free-market ideology built the "invisible architecture" we're all still living in — from Fox News to Trump's own media instincts. It's a fascinating, sometimes uncomfortable look at how the 80s built today.

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Today has been one of those days when everything that could go wrong did. I'm finally posting this at 7pm because I had to fix the audio which was fubar on today's show. It seems the gremlins that I banished have come back. So I fixed today's show as much as I could, but I still must fix my studio so we'll have a show tomorrow. But do have a listen as Driftglass was excellent as usual. And of course, there was that Kash Patel bestiality discussion near the end. No, I'm not kidding. It's even in the Congressional Record. This regime is so classy... or not!

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Today's the day David Corn's new book, How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America, hits stores — and he joins me to make the case that this isn't the "Russia hoax," it's the Russia hoax hoax. We trace ten years of Russian interference in our elections that never actually stopped, the bipartisan Senate report (signed by Marco Rubio!) that already proved it, and the Trump Jr. wedding bankrolled by a Russian oligarch just weeks before Russia started meddling in the midterms again. Also on today's show: my ongoing health mess, the Anthropic researcher who quit over AI safety fears, and sound from today's Kash Patel Senate hearing.

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I'm back from vacation and diving straight into the deep end. Fifty days until Election Day — vote early, vote smart, and don't trust the mail with your ballot if you can hand-deliver it instead. I cover Trump's unhinged Labor Day meltdown, the $40 trillion debt milestone, No Kings rallies coming back on October 17th, and the ongoing Jimmy Kimmel/FCC saga. Then I do something I never thought I'd do again: play a Bill Maher clip I agree with, on a topic I know will make some of you furious with me. Fair warning, and please actually listen before you yell.

Dr. Art Jipson (University of Dayton) joins for a wide-ranging conversation about the national nightmare we're living through — rising antisemitism, the difference between explaining extremism and excusing it, and why treating people we disagree with as enemies is corroding our politics. We close things out talking music: the Alan Parsons Project's stunning 50th anniversary tour and an underrated songwriter named Chris Isaak and the god Todd Rundgren.

This week on the show: David Corn (Mother Jones, "How Russia Won") tomorrow, Jonathan Kaufman ("When America Roared") Thursday, and a special recorded conversation with musician and author Warren Zanes airing next Wednesday — Bruce Springsteen's 76th birthday.

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I'm on vacation this week, but dropping in a special show to commemorate 9-11, twenty-five years later with some personal remembrances, along with a song and a book! The book by Jim DeFede, "The Day the World Came to Towwn," is available at https://bookshop.org/a/1630/978006300.... I think you'll recognize the song by Five for Fighting, "Superman (It's Not Easy)". I'll be back Monday with all new shows...

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I apologize for the late arrival of this podcast, but my right hand is in severe pain which makes it very difficult to type. So, here it is. but this week the show will have to speak for itself!

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I awoke this morning after very little sleep due to extreme pain in my right hand thinking I'd take the day off when I learned that Gloria Steinem had died. So much for the idea of resting my ailing hand todaaay!

I called Amy Simon — Playwright & actress, cultural HERstorian, and author of the upcoming book"American Agitators: Five Centuries of Unstoppable Women Who Fought for Social and Political Justice" — because if anyone was going to help me do Gloria justice, it was her. Amy's been fortunate enough to have met her and even performed for her, and wrote about her for the book, No wonder she's able to go deep, talking about the Playboy Bunny exposé that launched her career, the founding of Ms. Magazine, her friendships with Dolores Huerta and Wilma Mankiller, what she gave up and endured to say what she said, and why a whole generation of young women today doesn't know her name — and needs to.

We end the episode with Gloria's own voice: her full speech from the 2017 Women's March on Washington.

Tomorrow, Marcy Wheeler joins me to wrap the week. Monday is Labor Day, and I might actually take some time off after that — we'll see what my hand says.

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Driftglass returns for our weekly check-in, and things go sideways fast — straight into the Supreme Court's bunker-ballroom ruling, the "court packing" talking point, and why Trump's first-ever mid-cycle party convention in Dallas has vulnerable Republicans bolting for the exits ahead of the midterms. We also dig into Texas closing more than 100 polling places in a county that's trending blue, and reports of a Postal Service whistleblower on mail ballots.

Then Jason Leopold — the FOIA King himself — joins to walk through his year-long fight to get answers on why Ghislaine Maxwell was quietly moved to a lower-security prison after her interview with Todd Blanche. What he got back after suing the government: one page, almost entirely redacted in white space. We also cover Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's floor remarks on the suppressed FBI 302s naming Trump, and Rep. Thomas Massie reading 14 names connected to the Epstein network into the Congressional Record.

And yes, there is a comedy bit about "Mustang Meat" that I want to be very clear I do not endorse. But I'll admit that I did laugh.

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I crashed Brad Friedman's vacation. Again. I've done it before, but only because it's difficult to get him on my show when he's knee deep in recording his own show each day. So I take him when I can get him.

Brad — from BradBlog and the Bradcast, one of the people I actually call a friend after twenty-plus years in this business — was supposed to be off the grid this week. Instead he's on my show telling me his theory that November is going to be a bigger wave for Democrats than anyone's predicting, and I'm telling him why I don't quite believe him yet.

Along the way: the ten-year anniversary of my cancer surgery coming 10 years after the orange mess entered politics (he did not steal credit for saving my life, no matter what Brad heard secondhand), a possible tropical storm bearing down on Los Angeles, a scorpion in my house, the FCC coming for broadcasters who tell the truth, and the actual story of how Brad and I met back when I was hosting mornings in Miami and he was just some guy with a blog who actually knew what he was talking about.

We also get into the weird coincidence of Air America radio going dark the exact same day the Supreme Court handed down Citizens United — and why I will personally hunt down the woman who got my old KPFK show canceled. (No, I won't. I can't even remember her name. But karma will get her...)

Honest, unscripted, occasionally profane, always independent. That's the show.

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I started the show recounting my ongoing beef with T-Mobile - a diversion from what I'm really mad about. Yesterday marked my 10th anniversary of being cancer-free, but I realized that this gift of 10 extra years was made up of a demented madman hell-bent on destroying everything good about this country. That's what this past decade has been, and I'm realized that it's affecting me in pretty awful way, when I should be celebrating.

Dr. Art Jipson returns for the back-to-school check-in, bringing surprising optimism from his students, before we dug into military mismanagement, press intimidation, food safety rollbacks, and whether people can actually be pulled back from extremism. Plus, a replay of my Thursday phone call to a random Canadian named Jeffrey Sandler, in the name of international diplomacy.

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It's Friday, so it's Emptywheel Friday with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net — and for the first Friday in a few weeks, no technical gremlins. We dig into Trump's plan to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America," his failing tariff strategy against Canada, Mexico, and Iran, and whether he can even walk down a staircase reliably anymore. Marcy breaks down the strange Ratcliffe trip to Putin, why Russia has good reason to think the U.S. is weak, and the human cost of Pete Hegseth's Pentagon: a 19-year-old sailor punished for jumping ship after 8.5 months at sea without touching land. We also get into the manufactured Hakeem Jeffries/Jared Kushner "controversy," Ashley Moody's corruption problems in Florida, the collapsing Minnesota "Antifa" prosecutions, and our thoughts as we bid farewell to Dolly Parton.

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Today I decided to run my own one-woman focus group. Not with liberals — with Republicans. Because nobody who actually voted for this guy calls into my show, so I figured I'd go find them myself: phone lines open, an actual White Pages search underway live on air, all in pursuit of the question Driftglass gave me yesterday — show me on the doll where the liberal hurt you. Spoiler: landlines are basically extinct and my "focus group" mostly consisted of one very charming stranger in Ontario, Canada, who wanted nothing to do with Donald Trump either. Also in this episode: Trump tries to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America" (he cannot just do that), a quick history lesson on why this country isn't actually called "America," and a Department of Education social media post that may have compared our president to Hitler — accidentally or not, you decide. Plus a caller from the Bay Area running her own Trump-voter poll on her friends and family, and my ongoing feud with T-Mobile.

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