So road trips are out
And like, buying stuff

If I argued in court “when my client punched the victim, he was defending himself because his friend was about to punch the victim and my client thought this would have prompted the victim to punch him in response,” I’d lose my license to practice law.

OMG GUYS LEAVE ORWELL ALONE!

Opinion | Trump Says He Doesn’t Want the Best for His Enemies, but There Is Someone He Wants the Best For

Trump Says He Doesn’t Want the Best for His Enemies, but There Is Someone He Wants the Best For www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/o...

This is really well done and worth a read
I’ve gifted it

Pennsylvania has an important Supreme Court race coming up on Tuesday, November 4. If you live in the Keystone State, or know someone who does, vote YES to retain three justices who will protect your fundamental rights and freedoms. It’s never been more important....
Barack Obama

A headline reads: "Live Updates From the New York City Marathon." In the foreground, five female marathon runners, wearing sunglasses and race bibs, run on a street over a white-striped crosswalk. In the background are city buildings and a traffic light. Photo by Vincent Alban/The New York Times.

The 54th annual New York City Marathon is underway. Follow along with our live updates from all five boroughs. nyti.ms/4nKTj2U

It’s Halloween, but the only thing spooky here is the way Republicans are abandoning the American people.

Is Justice Done? You’ve probably seen or read at least something about the story that is the subject of tonight’s post.

Prosecutors are facing discipline for telling a judge the truth in a sentencing memo. This post traces the case, its facts, the sentencing process, and helps us understand why this completes the cycle of corrupting the Justice Department Trump has set us on.

open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

Today marks 30 days of the Republicans’ shutdown.

Now, 42 million Americans, including 3.5 million Texans, are at risk of losing access to SNAP.

Enough with the games. It’s time for them to show up and do their damn jobs.

“We are facing the gravest danger of nuclear war that has existed on the planet since the end of the Cold War, and possibly worse than it was during the Cold War,” says nuclear disarmament advocate Dr. Ira Helfand.

Today as I was watching Face the Nation, I heard my first commercial recruiting angry white men to join ICE, because they sure weren't recruiting me and every other democracy-loving American citizen.

But it's the left, not right wing radicals AKA white guys, who are committing violent acts against American citizens.

But he's a Christian

Sunday Morning Wrap-Up Here’s your Sunday morning wrap-up!

All of the last week’s posts from my Newsletter, Civil Discourse, in one place so you can make sure you didn’t miss anything in a pivotal week for democracy. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

As a US Atty, I prosecuted and oversaw police excessive force cases. We took them seriously because they were serious abuses of power. What we're seeing now is the outbreak of an epidemic & instead of being condemned by fed'l law enforcement leaders, it seems to be tolerated if not encouraged.

The Supreme Court’s “Shadow Docket,” Explained Robert Reich

The Supreme Court's "shadow docket" allows justices to effectively make rulings in secret without explaining their decisions. Is it any wonder why so many do not trust the Roberts court? https://youtu.be/xtiISydG9l0?feature=shared

I Am Suing the Department of Justice for the Epstein Files Training Videos On July 20th, I was the first to report the existence of training videos instructing FBI personnel how to flag mentions of Trump and others in the Epstein files. Today, I'm suing for those videos.

My reporting uncovered the existence of DoJ training videos instructing FBI personnel on how to flag Trump’s name in the Epstein files. I’m suing to get the videos under FOIA. substack.com/@muellershew...

MAGA: "Go woke, go br—oh, never mind. . ."

Jones: We have a presidential administration that has more outrage about the changing of the cracker barrel logo than they do about changing the policies that allow our children to be gunned down in school…

Citizens United. Presidential immunity.

It’s outrageous that Sec. Kennedy is trying to fire the CDC Director — after only a few weeks on the job — for her commitment to public health & vaccines.

The Sen. HELP Committee must hold a hearing with Kennedy & the CDC Director as soon as possible.

Vaccines save lives. Period.

"Get it all on record now. Get the films. Get the witnesses. Because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened."

– Dwight D. Eisenhower, Germany, 1945

The pizza is good. The tap water is FREE! Saved 3.00. What a nice lady!!

We are being conditioned to accept the worst possible living conditions so that the oligarchs can exploit our tax dollars. RESIST!

That sux. Hope you have something to read. I had a 5 hour layover at JFK a few months ago and was really excited to get free tap water at the pizza place.

Rep.Ted Lieu calls out ICE for mass racial profiling and reminds people filming ICE is legal

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia: 1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 38.2-3449.1 as follows: § 38.2-3449.1. Prohibited discrimination based on gender identity or status as a transgender individual. A. As used in this section: "Gender identity" means an individual's internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female and which may be different from an individual's sex assigned at birth. "Medically necessary transition-related care" means any medical treatment prescribed by a licensed physician for treatment of gender dysphoria and includes (i) outpatient psychotherapy and mental health services for gender dysphoria and associated co-morbid psychiatric diagnoses; (ii) continuous hormone replacement therapy; (iii) outpatient laboratory testing to monitor continuous hormone therapy; and (iv) gender reassignment surgeries. "Transgender individual" means an individual whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned to that individual at birth. B. A health carrier offering a health benefit plan providing individual or group health insurance coverage shall: 1. Provide coverage under the health benefit plan without discrimination on the basis of gender identity or status as a transgender individual; and 2. Treat covered individuals consistent with their gender identity. C. A health carrier offering a health benefit plan providing individual or group health insurance coverage shall not deny or limit coverage or impose additional cost sharing or other limitations or restrictions on coverage, under a health benefit plan for health care services that are ordinarily or exclusively available to covered individuals of one sex, to a transgender individual on the basis of the fact that the individual's sex assigned at birth, gender identity, or gender otherwise recorded is different from the one to which such health services are ordinarily or exclusively available.

The Code of Virginia defines transition-related health care as medically necessary and prevents health insurers from discriminating against transgender people.

The SCOTUS ruling today does not change that law we passed with bipartisan support in 2020 (my bill HB 1429).

Here’s the actual text:

Lying once again

😲 Is the United States sending a widebody 767 with a capacity of over 200 shackled & chained passengers to Mauritania--one of the few places on Earth that still widely practices slavery⁉️

As anyone who saw the video knows, Senator Padilla *didn't* lunge at silly Kristi Noem. He "lunged" at the floor--when pushed by the America Gestapo trying to take away his First Amendment rights and his duty to engage in congressional oversight.

This administration is full of shameless liars.