Richard J. Oparil

Hard to put into words how big of an own-goal it is for the United States to normalize shipping tolls at all, much less tolls at 20%. It's the kind of thing that appeals to someone who has only ever known how to run short-term scams.

Whoa, it's some actual "law" being applied to Trump and his administration. Didn't think that was a thing anymore.

For the 2nd time in a week, ICE agents who kill an unarmed man aren’t wearing body cameras. So what are they doing with the taxpayer $ Trump demanded they receive? Congress could pass laws requiring every agent involved in this work wear a working bodycam. www.pressherald.com/2026/07/13/s...

It really is that simple: there's no reason for an agency tasked with "Immigration and Customs Enforcement" to function as a gestapo that invades neighborhoods and shoots people. Why do they have military weapons and use military tactics? They're supposed to be paperwork clerks.

Another war Trump started and lost

As we’ve come to expect the unacceptable, from the purveyor of misinformation and fabrication

Reporter: What do you make of Republicans saying that Virginia— AOC: Wah wah wah. We have asked Republicans for 10 years to ban partisan gerrymandering. And for 10 years, Republicans have said no. What they’re just mad at is that they have been accustomed to a Democratic Party that rolls over.

The President and his Administration have already failed twice in court trying to intimidate me, and he's still not letting up. Just more proof that he'll do anything it takes to silence those of us willing to call him out. I'm not backing down — ever.

Burchett is right: the most DC thing ever *is* a member of Congress blaming the city for something he and his colleagues did themselves.

1/The Justice Department has moved to drop the last remaining January 6 insurrection criminal matters: the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys seditious conspiracy cases. Trump commuted their sentences when he returned to office, which got them out of prison, but it didn’t erase their convictions.

www.syracuse.com/news/2024/12...

I'm no fancy political consultant, but, hey, if you're in Dem comms, you should notice that Fox News panicked over Trump wearing a cheap Trump merch baseball cap to receive the bodies of soldiers he got killed for no reason he can articulate, and you should absolutely lean into that.

Among the many infuriating things about these guys is their endless obscene macho posturing—to the point of admitting war crimes because it sounds tough—then instantly cowering at a select few dictators like Putin instead of remaining macho with something like "we're giving Ukraine nukes."

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/u...

In Gorsuch’s Homage to Legislative Power, a Subtle Reproach of a Neutered Congress www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/u...

www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Remember when Trump yanked funds from Mississippi after learning that the state's welfare chief had directed millions in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds to sports celebrities, including not only Brett Favre, but the Million Dollar man and his two pro-wrestler sons? Wait. He didn't.

The Ford’s sailors have been away from home for eight months already, setting up a possible deployment of 11 months, he said. That would break the record for a continuous deployment by a U.S. Navy ship. www.wsj.com/us-news/miss...

10% yesterday. 15% today. As Gorsuch wrote, could be “1 percent or 1,000,000 percent .. and he may change his mind at any time for nearly any reason.” 🤡 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/b...

This is delusional. Putin has shown no willingness to meet Zelensky.

Trump just can’t stop thinking about Greenland… www.nytimes.com/2026/02/22/u...

www.cato.org/blog/supreme...

That's absurd, and also: Anthropic just caused a stir with their legal plugin, but what she's saying undermines using Claude for law. A "kind and worldly assistant" is different from a "zealous advocate." I don't need praise for my draft brief, I need to see how an unethical opponent will attack it.

New from me: The federal judiciary has withdrawn a chapter from the newest edition of its reference manual on scientific evidence that addressed climate change after Republican state attorneys general argued it was biased against fossil fuel companies. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

he literally dangled from power lines meant to symbolize the dilapidated Puerto Rican power grid

New: An immigration judge has rejected the Trump administration's efforts to deport Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was arrested last year as part of its targeting of pro-Palestinian campus activists, her lawyers said. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

BREAKING: Sen. DURBIN makes public request for Pam Bondi, Jeanine Pirro to preserve all records related to investigations into Sen. Mark Kelly, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, and four House Members who are being threatened a weaponized Justice Department.

Masked up DEA agent knowingly participating in an illegal arrest of a journalist that was already rejected by two trial judges and an appellate court. The de-Nazification after this period must be thorough. Seems likely we will need to fire the majority of federal law enforcement officers.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/o...

“We have a nice little database.” Two weeks ago I wrote about the risk of Trump using his NSPM-7 memo to treat citizens exercising their rights like terrorists. Now it’s a reality. joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-a...

Trump is weak, Bondi is weak, Miller is weak. The administration is filled with cartoon bullies who crumple when they face real opposition. Minnesotans get it. Denmark gets it. Lower court judges get it, and the best have moved into DGAF mode. When will SCOTUS get it? slate.com/news-and-pol...

"A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant." They killed her, exonerated her killer without an investigation, then tried to illegally investigate her.

www.startribune.com/ice-agent-wh...

Getting some new followers for some reason?? Hi. I write a newsletter that is free and comes out on Saturday mornings. howtoreadthisch.art I also wrote a book. www.pbump.com Sometimes I also offer commentary on TV.

Inside Stephen Miller’s Dark Plot to Build a MAGA Terror State

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/u...

A neat thing about birthright citizenship is how it tests whether a person cares at all about the Constitution. There's no argument against it, birthright citizenship is the unambitious text, the obvious intent of the drafters, and the undisputed way it was followed for the past 150+ years.

Turns out that the reminder from Congressional Democrats that members of the military shouldn’t follow illegal orders was timely. Read the details here: open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

1/ You must refuse illegal orders.” That’s what 6 Democratic members of Congress said on video. Trump called it seditious. The FBI launched an investigation. Then came reporting in WAPO about an order SecDef Hegseth gave ahead of the 9/2 attack on a boat allegedly trafficking drugs in the Caribbean.

this headline, and much of the reporting, is the result of believing that the key to good journalism is never taking a position

Love how this guy who constantly lies about everything, including basic numbers, is director of the National Economic Council and frontrunner for Fed Chairman. Lowest regular gas price by state is Oklahoma, $2.418. National average is $3.005. gasprices.aaa.com?state=US

HASSETT: Gas prices dropped below $2 a gallon in a lot of places CORDES: Gas prices on average are still at $3 a galloon HASSETT: For a few states they got below $2

www.propublica.org/article/paul...

So in the Comey case, the only grand jury witness was an FBI agent who had reviewed privileged materials (and was thus, as we say, "tainted"), and then Halligan made two separate grossly inappropriate statements about the law to the grand jury? Preposterously corrupt and incompetent all at once.

So there are three possibilities here. First and most likely: Bessent and other administration hacks just constantly say nonsensical bullshit without any theory or fact behind it. /1

Making sense of what’s happening in the Comey prosecution, after a day of ping pong action with court orders & the government’s efforts to avoid turning over grand jury material to the defense—& why it’s critically important for the future of our democracy joycevance.substack.com/p/what-happe...