Emptywheel Friday the 13th: Mississippi, Nvidia & the Fight Over What Comes Next

It's Emptywheel Friday the 13th, and national security journalist Marcy Wheeler is here to connect the dots on a week with no shortage of them.

We start with the good news. Mississippi made history, the Democratic Senate numbers keep climbing, and Alaska elected its first Democratic governor in two decades. Marcy argues that the real action right now is at the state level, where policy that's been in the works since at least 2010 can finally be rolled back.

Then we get into the fight over Senate leadership. Chris Van Hollen is challenging Chuck Schumer, and Marcy explains why she thinks the challenge is healthy, but also why a debate over the filibuster ahead of a December 1 vote could hand Republicans exactly the opening they want during the lame duck. We also break down what actually happened with the Hegseth impeachment vote (it's not what you've been hearing), and how Democrats can find the 67 votes they need on issues like funding the government, ending the Iran war and health care.

The main event is the Nvidia scandal. Marcy lays out the MegaSpeed chip diversion to China, the reporting that Trump was warned twice and did nothing, the money trail she sees running through the bunker ballroom and the Emirates, and how an investigation that started at Commerce wound up at DOJ. She sees strong echoes of the Rudy Giuliani affair, and she warns that the AI bubble could be the thing that makes it all come crashing down.

We close with the Trump administration's threats against members of Congress, the Epstein files, and a frank discussion of Stephen Miller: terrifying, yes, but also, Marcy says, not nearly as competent as he believes.

Find Marcy at emptywheel.net. No paywall, and please pitch in if you can.

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