Kay Whitlock

The military takeover of Washington is not a “distraction” from Epstein. It’s a military takeover of Washington, which is an even bigger deal, and those of us who kill brain cells reporting on this stuff knows it’s been an explicit goal since before the election.

Not a Distraction: Epstein, Elite Impunity, and the Rot at the Core To wave off every horror as a distraction is to participate in the very obfuscation that protects the powerful.

I wrote about Epstein and the rot that's killing us. "To wave off every horror as a distraction is to participate in the very obfuscation that protects the powerful."

Special thanks to @sarahkendzior.bsky.social for talking with me for this piece.

graphic pie chart showing the scope of immigrant incarceration in the US. While ICE detention data recorded 57,200 people on average in June 2025, a broader count of people detained shows the overall crimmigration system is 45% larger, at around 83,400 people.

So many important takeaways in this new report about jails and mass deportation from @prisonpolicy.org @jkangbrown.bsky.social 1) the scope of immigrants incarcerated *for immigration* is much higher than what is reported by ICE www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/jail...

I loved @chanda.bsky.social’s first book; can’t wait to read this one

Why we so stupid?

Federal policy focuses on 3 imperatives: more rapid transfer of wealth to the already wealthy; white Christian nationalism/supremacy; and the expansion of policing/carceral control as the M.O. for US governance.

bsky.app/profile/prem...

Grimly fascinating for endless reasons, among them the fact that California's Central Valley is a notorious "prison belt."

An indispensable new series! And please, do yourself a favor by following @inquest.bsky.social.

Quote card of Ruth Wilson Gilmore from the series Abolitionist Lessons from the Prison Belts: "It’s crucial to successful movement-building to
be able to show to people who might join in solidarity with abolition movements that the accumulated harms of organized abandonment that they’re encountering are part of a continuum with the organized violence—including criminalization and incarceration—that got us all motivated in the first place." Background image shows the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge viewed through a broken chain-link fence at Alcatraz.

This week Inquest launched a new series on abolitionist organizing and carceral geography from Ruth Wilson Gilmore, @craiggilmore.bsky.social‬ , Judah Schept, & @lydiajean.bsky.social‬ . Get the full recap: mailchi.mp/inquest.o...

The Annihilation of Florida: An Overlooked National Tragedy An accelerating race to destroy Florida’s wilderness shows what we value and previews our collective future during the climate crisis.

The extreme negation of home rule for municipalities in Florida, the extra-legal methods of establishing detention camps in the Everglades, etc... all of this is an acceleration of profane acts documented in this piece I did for Current Affairs awhile back. www.currentaffairs.org/news/2022/05...

And some people without power don't want an honest assessment of where we are politically because it feels too scary so they use words like "doomerism" but in reality you can't fight something that you haven't accurately diagnosed.

All in all it's a clusterfuck.

Contributor: Courts can protect trans healthcare by recognizing patient-physician privilege Federal district courts have the authority, and the obligation, to recognize that these interactions are akin to attorney-client and spousal discussions.

The only way this happens is if hospitals & health care facilities & providers resist subpoenas - if you need support, reach out to BDNHConsult@pm.me.

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

She’ll say anything Drumpf wants her to, in order to gain a pardon.

I rely on @propublica.org , and it’l has never let me down. I live in Montana, a state profoundly affected by wildfire. Listen up, friends. The oligarchy only cares about saving itself.

What ICE’s Assault on Ventura County, California Means for the Rest of America “Mom is gone. They took her away.” These are the words of an 8-year-old Mexican-American girl I will call Maria, in my hometown of Oxnard, California. She spoke them to her summer school teachers t…

"If Ventura County falls, we are all going to fall." @thrasherxy.bsky.social

I love that Californians, doctors, teachers, farmworkers, ministers are putting their bodies on the line for their neighbors...and I am concerned that they are going to be charged with "interfering with the duties of an officer" sometime in the next year

Having been through this mill myself and lost nearly everything, I think everyone should be aware of what’s coming: a ten-fold increase in ICE means an exponential number of ppl who “resist arrest” or “interfere with the duties of an officer.” THIS is the blueprint.

For those wanting to help our neighbors in Kerr County, TX: here's how to donate to a grassroots effort that is part of a mutual aid network. These folks work deeper than disaster relief giants and can get aid on the ground where it's most needed.

Criticism of the New York Times is mounting. From manufacturing consent for genocide & platforming Zionist lies, to pushing blatant transphobia, & working with a eugenicist while profiling NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani, the institution has broken trust with readers, a purportedly center-left base.

The National Education Association just voted to cut all ties to the Anti-Defamation League In a momentous vote, the National Education Association voted to cut all ties with the Anti-Defamation League. The reason? “Despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the so...

🚨 HUGE: The largest teachers union in the U.S. just dropped the ADL.

The reason? “Despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be.”

Read more: mondoweiss.net/2025/07/the-...

This article is an example of the outstanding Texas Tribune reporting and why I donate to them. #independentmedia

It is, indeed.

@andreapitzer.bsky.social has written on the long and brutal history of concentration camps. Essential reading.

Neighbors of ICE agents could start having some uncomfy conversations with them across the driveway, at youth sports events, at the grocery.
Make it harder for them to keep doing their evil jobs without facing the evil they are doing.

Presiding bishop: ‘Once the church of presidents, The Episcopal Church must now be an engine of resistance’ [Episcopal News Service] In an opinion piece originally published July 3 in Religion News Service, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe reflected on The Episcopal Church’s history as it has emerged as an ins…

Here's one church's response to white Christian nationalism: acknowledging past failures; noting that a reckoning is long overdue; committing this church to fight for justice. Faith communities who've been silent: this is the time to speak out! episcopalnewsservice.org/2025/07/03/p...

The obscene funding for ICE, added to budgets for the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons, elevates the already-existing US carceral state to gargantuan size and reach. This isn't sudden; the (bipartisan) carceral state has been building for decades.

How do I say this….

THIS IS NOT A THING people.

Exceptionalizing ICE fails to recognize that ICE & cops serve similar functions use the same tactics target the same people (undercover cops kidnap Black Indigenous & migrant ppl too) & collaborate to criminalize migrants every damn day.
Please stop.

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.

It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

The most sobering part about becoming 1930’s Germany is realizing that no one is going to come here and liberate those being brutalized. If this historically inhumane regime is going to be overthrown, We The American People are going to have to do it.