You’ve probably seen that the 3rd Circuit ruled that Alina Habba wasn’t properly appointed by the administration as U.S. Attorney in New Jersey. This piece explains why the court reached that conclusion. It was a unanimous decision. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

December 1, 2025

It’s another week where there is too much going on to keep track of. Here’s the background you need to stay on top of it! open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

November 30, 2025

A short Patreon post on putting the Storybundle video together. Enjoy! www.patreon.com/posts/wee-be...

Chaos comes in small packages! Wee Beasties Bundle on StoryBundle: 14 books of small-but-deadly troublemakers: cats, pixies, mice, halflings, corgis, and other bite-sized menaces. (My story is cats.) Pay what you want, support indie authors (and World Central Kitchen): storybundle.com/animals

So very proud to introduce ROMANCE FOR ALL SEASONS, a quarterly romance anthology edited by Annie Reed and myself. If you're a fan of romance novels or novels of any genre, give these wonderful romance short stories a try. I am SURE you'll be happy you did! www.amazon.com/gp/product/1...

November 29, 2025

It's totally great, and Mark Hamill is great IN it.

I remain astounded that some people think that co-writing with (or being assisted by) one of the worst "writers" I've encountered is actually going to make their story better. Ditch the "AI" and write it yourself. And if you can't manage that, at least stop sending them to me.

Prepare for a new interplanetary adventure with David Gerrold's THE BOY WHO WAS GIRL, with a foreword by Robert Jeschonek. Available on Amazon now: www.amazon.com/dp/B0FB4PZZQ8 #scifi #newbook

Have to thank Leah for including "Not Dead Yet," my rather offbeat take on white-collar crime, in the current issue of MCM. Check it out!

Any news organization that covered that speech and didn't mention that he is clearly suffering from dementia & often incoherently rambling has abdicated their responsibility to truth in reportage. This abdication and failure, pretending he & his cult are normal, is a large part of how we got here.

The Wall Street Journal had a piece last night that the Judicial Conference of the United States — the policy making body for the federal judiciary — is discussing whether the Judiciary should have its own armed security force rather than rely on the U.S. Marshals for federal judges’ protection.

April 23, 2025

One of the fun things about being a writer: watching a movie for research. Today's movie was GOING IN STYLE, a caper movie starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Alan Arkin. I'd suggest this one for anyone who likes geezer caper movies where the old guys strike back at an uncaring institution.

Every single Democratic lawmaker should be calling for Hegseth's immediate resignation right now. Not just some. Not just a few dozen. Every single one, starting at the top with Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries. And the fact that it hasn't happened yet is nearly as shocking as Hegseth's conduct.

March 24, 2025:

Buttigieg: Nobody in Elon Musk's family is at risk from the kinds of economic or security harms that are going on here. They think all of this is a joke or a game because these are incredibly rich, powerful men who, frankly, don't have to worry about the kinds of things most Americans do.

March 20, 2025

Is it at all surprising that a convicted felon would ignore a judge's order?

⚡️FIGHT THE OLIGARCHY RALLY ⚡️ STARTING TOMORROW. Nevada. Arizona. Colorado. You, me, and Bernie. Dem and GOP districts. ❤️💙 See you there 💪🏽🌞

One of my Radical Leftist opinions is the government shouldn't be able to deprive anyone of life, liberty, or property without due process of law

Step up, stand up, speak out.   This moment is hard — I don't dispute that, but this isn't the time to be afraid. Make your voice heard, whether it’s at a town hall or on the phone, so Donald Trump and Republicans know how sick and tired you are of them cutting your services.

March 19, 2025

March 5, 2025:

These iconic pictures of Rep. Al Green speaking truth to power will outlive every moth-eaten MAGA hat, Trump/Vance flag and Quisling Republican complicit in the Destruction of American Democracy. I'm proud to have witnessed this historic moment. Every Dem on the floor should have done the same.

Please share this with people in your life who care about social security!

What a photo. Green must be the start of something, not the end.

Wait... aren't all people--Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Green Party, Jedi, Sith, whatever--in a politician's district their constituents? Or is it just the rich people? (Don't answer that.)

See also “Look What You Made Me Do.” (“You were supposed to come running back to me! What do you *mean* your friends told you you should dump me?!”) …Any of this sound familiar…?

Read this second:

Read this first:

Very cool letter to the editor of our local Northern Nevada newspaper. www.msn.com/en-us/news/p...

Here is some truth: Putin invaded Ukraine. NATO is the most successful military alliance in history. Since 1945, American leadership has ensured freedom and security for ourselves and millions of others around the world.

Local protest yesterday. www.msn.com/en-us/news/p...

You know, I've never seen Hannibal Lector and RFK Jr in the same room together. Look, I don't wanna start anything here, but RFK Jr, man, that guy really looks like someone wearing another dude's skin as his face.

I've got a story in this issue! "Same Worm, Different Day." Yup, it's a fun story.

Saddened to learn that JD Vance’s family vacation was ruined due to protesters. Do better, guys. You don’t have to wait until he’s on vacation—every day that ends in Y is a chance to revel in that man’s misery.

This is Marco Rubio explaining how the USA promised to defend Ukraine forever if they got rid of their nuclear arsenal left after the Soviet Union fell. This is why lil marco was sinking into the couch. He was hoping we wouldn’t find it…so don’t RT right now this very second.

This is 100% bullshit. There are no algorithms. Musk and his incel clown posse are not forensic accountants and do not know how to audit. Discovering fraud is a labor-intensive project that can never be done by looking at payments alone. This is just a thinly-veiled rationale to gut Social Security.

Who knew the arrangement of a couple snow shovels could be quietly heart-lifting? In case anyone was wondering where most of southern Maine stands on the subject of Ukraine’s plight…

There are good people out there.

March 1, 2025

I got laid off today, with the rest of 18F. 18F was an elite federal software shop. We made gov't websites work better, more efficiently for the American people. We saved taxpayers from getting screwed over by contractors. And were fired for it. We made this website to tell our story: 18f.org

BREAKING: Judge Amy Berman Jackson sides with Hampton Dellinger in his challenge to Donald Trump’s effort to fire him as head of the Office of Special Counsel. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

It took seeing adult bullies to understand that my childhood bullies didn’t even really want to hurt me, they just wanted to feel powerful and how I felt about it wasn’t even in the equation. I can’t imagine someone not outgrowing that, but apparently it happens quite a lot!

Musk is basically running an IRL equivalent of a denial of service attack on Americans. Disrupting normal operations is cybercrime 101. Also, global threat levels that increase from this kind of unimaginable idiocy are enormous and almost impossible to identify at speed.

BOOM.