Kate Oakley
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cthrynokly.bsky.social
Kate Oakley
@cthrynokly.bsky.social
Sr. Dir. Legal Policy @HRC. Smithie. Avid color coder. Lawyer but “human and relatable”. Many opinions, all mine. Policy is my ❤️ language. She/her.
Reposted by Kate Oakley
“Self-deport” is a whitewashed way to describe “fleeing the country under the threat of state violence.” I agree with Maria here — it’s important to call that exactly what it is.
What. No.

Don't use their language, @newyorker.com that is not even a real word. What the hell is wrong with "flee" or like. "Flee this godforsaken country"
December 30, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
I lost my job and had to give up my health insurance when the premiums exceeded $40,000. But at least I know some of those uppity student loan borrowers will have their wages garnished starting next month.
December 26, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
we rented a chrysler pacifica for our trip down to see my folks after christmas and i now totally get why people like minivans. this thing rules.
December 25, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
After that confused, impotent performance last night I am tempted to suggest that we use "Transgender for everybody!" as one of our rallying cries in resisting the depredations of this crumbling Regime.
December 18, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
When you get interviewed multiple times over the course of a year and the interviews are recorded and you sit for formal photographs with a well known national magazine you definitely know it’s on the record.
CNN suggests Susie Wiles might not have known she was on the record 😆
December 16, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
this is not behavior becoming of a FIFA Peace Prize recipient.
December 15, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
I’ve been reporting on the gun industry + lobby for a decade. Whatever we learn abt what happened at Brown, this will be the ultimate truth: The only people who benefit from the status quo on guns in America are the people who make money from guns in America. Everyone else is an acceptable casualty.
December 14, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
When my last will and testament is read aloud to my loved ones—
December 11, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
Similar thing for me and the NICU.

Oh, my kid needs to be transferred within three hours to stay alive? Hold on, let me call around on Christmas Eve for the best price on a condition we haven’t even ID’d yet.

These people are deeply unserious.

Signed, another economist who generally likes markets
Reminds me of that time I needed emergency appendectomy & I was on morphine & the hospital billing guy came to my room to ask me to pay the copay upfront

I was like dude I’m going next door to check the other hospital‘s price also what’s my name again

Ps I’m an economist, ok w/markets generally
Roger Marshall: "We want patients to become consumers again. We want patients to see what the actual prices are. We believe that if we would add the price tags to this bill, that it would save the country a trillion dollars a year."
December 11, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
The titular wokeness being rolled back is the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Washington Post editorial board really speaking truth to power
December 11, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
John Roberts & Co. are so very good at channeling the will of the nation's founders, who definitely wanted a mad king running the country and deciding who lives and who dies, who thrives and who suffers, all on a whim, that is certainly what they were after, nailed it
December 8, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
Again (and realizing this should really be a blog) I'm sympathetic and consider myself part of Dunkleman's project of making democratic governments responsive and functional. But you can't hand wave the accountability stuff. The argument can't be a "unitary exec theory - but for good!"
December 3, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
Tag yourself, I’m the two bathtubs in the laundry room
Oh shit waddup
December 1, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
Opinion | The state of Louisiana owes $172 million to three men who coached or will coach the LSU football team. Here's my scolding op-ed about a blue state's investment in a middle school math tutoring program.
December 1, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
Q: “Are you affirming you think Trump is a fascist?”

TRUMP: “That’s ok, you can just say yes.”

ZOHRAN: “Ok. Yes.”
November 21, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
Word of the day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet politician whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.
November 21, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
In honor of Larry Summers, I asked the female members of my college class (1987) to say if they had any experiences with sexual harassment by teachers/professors, back when this was tolerated as, I dunno, the cost of attending college, and OH MY GOD.
November 21, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
#BREAKING: Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.
Summers Will Not Finish Semester of Teaching as Harvard Investigates Epstein Ties | News | The Harvard Crimson
Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein.
www.thecrimson.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
This *entire* episode is all of the evidence anyone should ever need, regardless of their politics, for why it's important to have experienced career officials in key government positions (like U.S. Attorney), rather than partisan cronies (unlawfully) appointed solely to do the President's bidding.
The facts are complicated, but here’s a summary of what appears to have happened based on the filings and today’s hearing:
NEWS: During a hearing in federal court in VA, prosecutors confirmed that the operative indictment in the case against James Comey was never shown to or voted on by the entire grand jury before it was presented in open court.

Defense counsel argued that’s a complete bar to further prosecution
November 19, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
she’s a 10 but Excel thinks she’s October
November 13, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
Teenagers are old enough to have sex with middle aged men. They are not old enough to be trans.

by Megyn Kelly
November 16, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
BREAKING: WE WON!!!
💥 💥 💥

Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment.

Full ruling here:
Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law – #261 in American Association of University Professors v. Rubio (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-10685) – CourtListener.com
Judge William G. Young: ORDER entered. FINDINGS OF FACT AND RULINGS OF LAW, PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 52(A)(Sonnenberg, Elizabeth) (Additional attachment(s) added on 9/30/2025: # 1 Main Document) (J...
www.courtlistener.com
September 30, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
Predictable but still amazing to watch people who spent literally years accusing every librarian, teacher, and trans person they could find of sexually grooming children suddenly throw themselves in with "actually it's ephebophilia"
Megyn Kelly: "I know somebody very close to this case…Jeffrey Epstein, in this person's view, was not a pedophile…He was into the barely legal type, like he liked 15 year old girls…He wasn't into like 8 year olds…There's a difference between a 15 year old and a 5 year old."
November 13, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
Democrats say Donald Trump molests children. As president, he's been far more likely to starve or deport them. Two Pinocchios.
November 13, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Kate Oakley
They’ve laid off so many people that the government is now getting its economic data from DoorDash.
November 12, 2025 at 1:09 AM