Explore every episode of the podcast Ball of Thread

In honor of Don Jr's oligarch-funded wedding party, we're reissuing the Ball of Thread Series from a few years back.

Episode 1 covers how I understand the 2016 Russian attack to include not just several attempts to recruit Americans and stoke polarization, but also laid the groundwork for three devastating attacks on the US intelligence community.

Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/Shul5PbzBO0?si=fB3rdWnSBdf6flkL 

Support this by backing LOLGOP Studios  / lolgopstudios  

In a perfect phone call in July 2019 orchestrated for months by mobbed up corrupt Ukrainians -- some backed by Russia -- Trump attempted to corrupt the newly elected president of Ukraine, who had been elected on an anti-corruption platform. That attempted failed, but the aftermath corrupted virtually the entire Republican Party.

Produced by LOLGOP Studios.   / lolgopstudios   A buck a month to help save democracy is all we ask.

DOJ rolled out a conspiracy indictment against 15 people in Minnesota that risks criminalizing opposition to Trump more generally.

Watch:  https://youtu.be/tviFq9EkpvY?si=gqkgx5IUA6qrHHEG

Read more: https://emptywheel.net/2026/06/26/the-stories-todd-blanche-spins-about-antifa/ 

Produced by LOLGOP Studios.   / lolgopstudios  

Donald Trump has rolled out a Fraud Task Force, under JD Vance and Scott Brady (the guy who set up a way to criminally frame Joe and Hunter Biden). It itself is pretty fraudulent: an effort to shift attention and investigative focus away from the kind of fraud Trump commits to demonize brown people and defund Blue states.

Produced by LOLGOP Studios.   / lolgopstudios  

To find a resolution with Iran, Trump will need to budge on one or another of his most fundamental psychological rules: He can't oppose Vladimir Putin and he cannot admit that Obama was a better President than Trump.

Produced by LOLGOP Studios.   / lolgopstudios  

You can't separate Trump's disastrous war in Iran from the opportunities it gives Russia and China to wreak havoc in Europe and elsewhere.

WATCH: https://youtu.be/nqNVpudA6_A?si=1G2dbnGp3eRZyS_t 

Read more:

Produced by https://www.patreon.com/cw/LOLGOPStudios

By sending an invoice for the damages Trump's tariffs did to the American consumer, JB Pritzker will make it obvious that Trump is trying to hoard the money he stole from American consumers. Produced by LOLGOP Studios.

Read more: https://emptywheel.net/trumps-tantrum-tariffs/ 

Support emptywheel: https://emptywheel.net/support/

Back these podcasts and more at LOLGOP Studios: https://www.patreon.com/cw/LOLGOPStudios 

Marco Rubio went to Europe and invited them to remain allies of the US, but only if they adhere to a vision of Western culture and history that excises the contributions of Latinos like him, to say nothing of Black Americans.

Support emptywheel: https://emptywheel.net/support/

Support these podcasts and help change brains: www.patreon.com/lolgopstudios 

Behind the masks that Stephen Miller's goons are wearing lies a truth about America that destroys his claims of white supremacy. He cannot carry out his deeply racist project without relying on the labor of brown people.

Read more:  https://emptywheel.net/stephen-miller-paid-latino-thugs-to-murder-alex-pretti/

Support emptywheel: https://emptywheel.net/support/

Help change brains: https://www.patreon.com/lolgopstudios 

Republicans have made a choice: to dump billions of money that previously went into healthcare, including VA care, to pay goons who are shooting people dead in Minneapolis and elsewhere. They've literally taken money used to fund VA care to pay goons who shot VA nurse Alex Pretti in the back.

Read  more: https://emptywheel.net/marco-rubio-will-let-2-5-million-children-die-so-sarah-rogers-can-fund-far-right-extremists-in-europe/ 

Subscribe to emptywheel and support the cause: https://emptywheel.net/support/ 

Produced by LOLGOP Studios: https://www.patreon.com/lolgopstudios 

Two weeks ago we argued that Stephen Miller thinks of his invasions of Venezuela and Minneapolis the same. This week, after Alex Pretti's murder, Donald Trump confirmed that.

Support emptywheel: https://emptywheel.net/support/ 

Back LOLGOP Studios: https://www.patreon.com/c/LOLGOPStudios 

It may be easier to separate MAGAt from Trump by stoking their conspiracism than by explaining, factually, all the problems with Trump.

Read the post: https://www.emptywheel.net/portfolio-item/where-we-go-from-here/

Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/ 

Join LOLGOP Studios: https://www.patreon.com/cw/LOLGOPStudios 

Stephen Miller's plan to murderbomb boats in the Caribbean and invade Venezuela and Greenland has direct ties to the latest invasion of Minneapolis.

Watch this: https://youtu.be/dIi6tA-DV_k?si=cLWePZcwI6gSZSzR 

Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2026/01/07/stephen-miller-has-similar-plans-for-colombia-and-columbia/

Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/ 

Back LOLGOP Studios: https://www.patreon.com/lolgopstudios 

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 that overran the Capitol on January 6th possible. Donald Trump's grievance narratives gave disaffected Americans meaning, and in that meaning, he convinced thousands of people to throw their lives away in his name. The thing is, it's all the same con. That con defeated the Russia investigation and weaponized the Department of Justice against his opponent. And when he lost in 2020, he unleashed it to unite fringe right-wing groups and mainstream Republicans in a shared revenge fantasy. Thus, he was able to raise a ragtag army to sack the nation's Capitol briefly, and in the process, savagely battered hundreds of police officers and ended America's tradition of a peaceful transfer of power.

Though the attack ultimately failed by only delaying the certification of Joe Biden's victory, the bets Trump and many of his biggest fans made on January 6, 2021 are now paying off in ways that were inconceivable on January 6, 2025.

Stephen Miller has had two notable failures in 2025. His initial success at deporting 200 mostly innocent men to a concentration camp has been backfiring ever since. And his demand that DHS attempt to snatch 3,000 people a day has led to backlash without making the US safe from dangerous immigrants. These failures must become part of making Stephen Miller the villain of Trump's failures in 2026.

Read the post: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/12/27/we-dont-know-how-when-stephen-miller-fails/

Watch this: https://youtu.be/-j2JfEzuqY8?si=_nt2eC5T5fjb93ry

Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/ 

Produced by https://www.patreon.com/lolgopstudios 

Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair she didn't really know how bad the Epstein scandal would be, and so relied on her resident conspiracy theorists -- Dan Bongino, Kash Patel, and JD Vance -- instead. But she's still misjudging who cares about this.

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Back LOLGOP Studios: https://www.patreon.com/c/LOLGOPStudios 

Pam Bondi did two totally reckless things yesterday: re-ratify the indictment Lindsey Halligan obtained against Jim Comey, and immediately agree to investigate Democrats' involvement with Jeffrey Epstein.

Read the post: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/11/16/might-pam-bondis-latest-prosecutorial-abuse-give-us-ponies-and-puppies/

Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/

Read the post: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/26/mainstream-press-confesses-they-missed-the-other-politicized-prosecutions/ 

Watch: https://youtu.be/KBEgfIU8Oyg?si=j1tifL_zlEZqF9RY

Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/

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-nJwdjvbfutHZdsNfOEou7UXvHm_SH 

Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/ 

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 classified documents--by claiming every push for accountability was just a hoax by Hillary Clinton.

Russia Russia Russia.

But Putin has proof that Trump knows Hillary didn't frame him--instead, Russian spies framed her.

And if he released that, it would destroy the very means by which Trump has avoided accountability for eight years.

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.

Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/13/trump-confesses-he-will-bankrupt-the-country-unless-scotus-lets-him-break-the-law/

Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/ 

Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/10/john-durhams-show-trials-a-preview-of-coming-attractions/

Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/ 

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 like Marjorie Taylor Greene to anti-Semitic voices like Candace Owens, and even convicted January 6th participants like Joe Biggs. 

She explores how to exploit these cracks using the same tactics that got Trump elected, turning his own troll army's playbook against them.

Marcy discusses how Twitter became Elon's Machine for Fascism and how we can use it against the fascists.

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/ 

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 years ago, Kash Patel helped Trump turn a legitimate investigation into Trump's ties to Russia into a grievance narrative. Over and over, Kash added to the tale: with Ukraine, with January 6, with the stolen documents.

And now, as Kash prepares to turn the FBI into an instrument of Trump's vengeance while gutting the agency's ability to counter Russian operations and crime, Trump has all but fully capitulated to Vladimir Putin.

For eight years, Kash and Trump have worked together to turn every effort to hold Trump accountable into a grievance fantasy to sell, to slowly train Republicans to eschew rule of law. Along the way, Trump delivered everything Vladimir Putin might have sought in 2016: a divided America, the end of the Western Order, and a world bartering corruption.

Ball of Thread hoped to help avoid the exact reality we now face. We failed, but we will persist. 

Marcy carries on, as always, at emptywheel.net, where you can follow and support her work.

Thanks to everyone who supported us in creating this document. Hopefully, we've shown that some of us were very, very aware of the risks our democracy faced from Donald Trump in real-time. May the lessons in these episodes help us defend our nation as we try to limit the misery of the biggest mistake this country's voters were ever lured into making.

The series will conclude with a final bonus episode, "So Let's Talk About Merrick Garland."

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 that overran the Capitol on January 6th possible. Donald Trump's grievance narratives gave disaffected Americans meaning, and in that meaning, he convinced thousands of people to throw their lives away in his name. 

The thing is, it's all the same con. That con defeated the Russia investigation and weaponized the Department of Justice against his opponent. And when he lost in 2020, he unleashed it to unite fringe right-wing groups and mainstream Republicans in a shared revenge fantasy. Thus, he was able to raise a ragtag army to sack the nation's Capitol briefly, and in the process, savagely battered hundreds of police officers and ended America's tradition of a peaceful transfer of power.

Though the attack ultimately failed by only delaying the certification of Joe Biden's victory, the bets Trump and many of his biggest fans made on January 6, 2021 are now paying off in ways that were inconceivable on January 6, 2025.

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—especially the last two episodes on the blackmailing of Joe Biden and the packaging of Hunter.

While the pardon story has died down and the former FBI informant who tried to frame the Bidens has now pled guilty, the Republicans in the House who kept this targeted abuse of power alive for the last two years have vowed to continue hounding the soon-to-be-former president's family. One thing Ball of Thread has made clear is that whatever the right-wing media fixates on will be what Republicans in power fixate on. And House Republicans will need a perceived enemy to distract from the actual oversight they won't be doing.

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 Biden—also with the help of Bill Barr.

The first flailing attempts to smear Joe Biden with his son's connections to a corrupt Ukrainian business resulted in Donald Trump's impeachment and the arrests of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. But MAGA hit paydirt with the "discovery" of Hunter Biden's "laptop," which first appeared mysteriously right around the time of Trump's first trial in the US Senate and then reappeared the following year, just in time to be the election year October Surprise.

At first, the laptop, with its endless supply of digital proof of the depravity to which Hunter Biden had descended before he got sober the year before, didn't work out the way John Podesta's emails had. At first, journalists actually demanded proof the files were authentic and also tested whether they proved what Rudy Giuliani or NY Post claimed they did.

But over the years, egged on by Fox News and enticed by the promise of easy sensation, they came to chase the dick pics because they were there, just as Murdoch's propagandists had done. 

And the process by which icky dick pics came to stand in for unsubstantiated claims that Joe Biden was corrupt sucked all the air out of DC reporting for years … and laid the groundwork for Trump's reelection. 

For the first time, Marcy Wheeler ties together the story of what is actually known about Hunter's laptop(s) and hard drives and the baffling characters who got their hands on them. She explains how the shameless leaking of the private data of the son of a former vice president and future president to his father's political opponents was never really treated as a crime. She also exposes how Trump's plot succeeded in sucking all the air out of Joe Biden's presidency and fueled problematic political prosecutions that haunt America and still twist our discourse today.

This Ball of Thread also attempts to do what almost no one has. It shows how the press joined in an effort to dehumanize Joe Biden's kid and, in the process, abdicated their primary job.

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, spent more than a year trying to trade access to or leniency from the Department of Justice for dirt on Hunter Biden. And while that disgraceful abuse of power eventually erupted into Trump's first impeachment, it essentially continued for another four years, only fading away after a key player in the conspiracy was indicted for feeding the FBI lies from Russian spies.

It's a story that only Marcy has told and will now likely fade into history. But the abuse of the Department of Justice as a plaything for Donald Trump to deploy against his perceived enemies will continue for at least the next four years.