Welcome to Muckrakers.Today
One rogue at a time. With receipts.
I started American Muckrakers with Col Moe Davis in 2021, to do something simple and unfashionable: tell the truth about powerful people who count on you not paying attention. Today we are taking that further. I want to introduce you to Muckrakers.Today, and to a brand new series we are calling the Rogues’ Gallery.
Here is the idea. Every week, we put one rogue under the light. A politician, an oligarch, a fixer, a fraud. We lay out what they did, who got hurt, and where the money went. All of it sourced. All of it linked. No spin, no both-sides cowardice, and no asking permission from the people we are reporting on.
The muckrakers of a century ago did not have podcasts or a website. They had a notebook, a printing press, and a spine. We have the first two covered. The third one is on me.
Our first rogue: Vladimir Putin
For the debut episode, I went straight at the biggest one. He’s a bee in my bonnet that I can’t wait to be gone.
Picture a split screen. On one side, Tuesday, June 2nd, Putin launched one of the largest barrages of the entire war: seventy-three missiles, eight of them hypersonic, and six hundred fifty-six drones in a single night. Apartment blocks in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Poltava. Twenty-two civilians dead. A hundred thirty-eight wounded. Four medical facilities hit.
On the other side of that screen, the very next morning, the same man cut the ribbon on a glittering economic forum in St. Petersburg. Champagne and panels. They used to call it the Russian Davos, back when anyone still showed up. This year the guest list was far-right influencers and a Saudi energy minister, while black smoke rose over the port behind the delegates from a Ukrainian drone strike on an oil terminal that same morning.
That is the whole con in one image. He is killing civilians on Tuesday and toasting investors on Wednesday, and he is counting on the world to only watch the Wednesday.
The numbers tell the rest. Le Monde puts the total casualties of this war, both sides, at more than five hundred twenty-five thousand killed and wounded, and it climbs every single day. When Zelensky sent a letter proposing a meeting in a neutral country to end it, Putin’s answer was that he saw, quote, no point. He will find a point for seventy-three missiles. A handshake is a bridge too far.
Listen to the full episode via the link below, then go read the whole written piece, fully sourced, at muckrakers.today.
Why this needs you
Accountability journalism does not have a billionaire sugar daddy or a hedge fund behind it. It has you. Muckrakers.Today exists because supporters and donors decided the truth was worth paying for when the people in power would rather it stayed buried.
If this is the kind of work you want more of, here is how to help, and it takes about thirty seconds:
Subscribe to this Substack so every new Rogue lands in your inbox the day it drops. Share the Putin episode with one person who needs to hear it. And if you are able, chip in at americanmuckrakers.com/donate so we can keep the lights on and the reporting coming.
Every dollar goes to putting the next rogue under the light.
Next week’s rogue: Beetlejuice Boebert
We are not staying overseas. Next week we come home, and we train the light on a real piece of work: Lauren “Beetlejuice” Boebert. You already know the greatest hits. We are going to give you the full record, with receipts, the same way we did Putin.
Subscribe now so you do not miss it.
DBW
About the Author
David B. Wheeler is President of American Muckrakers PAC, Inc. and founder of VoteROI, a donor intelligence platform built on 86.9 million FEC records covering federal races from 2000 to 2026. American Muckrakers has been firing fools since 2021.
Disclaimer
Paid for by American Muckrakers PAC II (americanmuckrakers.com). Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Donations made to American Muckrakers, Inc. are not deductible for federal or state tax purposes.
This essay constitutes protected speech and commentary, opinion, and advocacy on matters of public concern under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is not a legal pleading, sworn statement, affidavit, or admission of fact and anyone that says otherwise is full of shit.