Kate Sills
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katelynsills.com
Kate Sills
@katelynsills.com
2.2K followers 1.8K following 1.7K posts
Farm kid, Berkeley grad, software engineer, writer, and internationally-recognized speaker living in Sonora, CA.

Fighting for the right of all Californians to live free from fear and tyranny.
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katelynsills.com
My grandfather started the family farm after coming back from fighting the Nazis in France in WWII.

My dad innovated, converting to organic starting in the 1980s. The farm is still going strong, now in the third-generation. Proud of this write-up in the Sutter Crop Report:
Pleasant Grove Farms Also, among the earliest of California’s farms to transition into organic farming was Sutter County’s Pleasant Grove Farms. A 3rd generation family operation, this farm was started by Tom Sills in 1946, currently operated by son Ed and his wife Wynette. Frustrated with returns from conventional farming, increasing costs of chemicals and fuel, and increasing resistance of weeds to herbicides, the Sills first turned to organic farming in 1985. They subsequently converted the entirety of their acreage over the next decade. Today, their operation consists of approximately 3000 certified regenerative organic acres, which produce field crops of corn, popcorn, beans, wheat/triticale, rice, and organic seed. Crop rotations are utilized to reduce pest, weed, and disease pressure. Cover crops of vetch and animal materials are incorporated into the soil to improve fertility and tilth. Rice fields are planted in a two-year rotation, alternating a year of rest/ green fallow in between years of rice plantings. Vetch seed is flown on just before rice is harvested in the fall, and then, after the rice is harvested, the vetch emerges through the stubble and grows throughout the winter. In spring, that vetch is cut for its seed, while some seed falls to the ground. The harvested vetch seed is cleaned for sale or planting. The seed that falls to the ground later sprouts and, once again, grows through the winter. In spring, the vetch is plowed under, enriching the soil with nitrogen and organic matter. Then the rice is planted once more, and the cycle begins anew. Water levels are strategically adjusted high or low to favor rice while hindering weed growth. For row crops and wheat/triticale, a three-year rotation is used. Corn or popcorn in year one, beans in year two, and finally wheat/triticale in year three. Every winter, vetch cover crop grows and is incorporated into the soil before the next crop is planted. Wheat is the one exception, as it also grows during the winter and spring. Sometimes the wheat grows with the vetch, and the seed is harvested together and separated out in our seed cleaning facility. Occasionally, a four-year rotation is used by planting rice in between the corn and bean years. Throughout the farm, soil health is a key component of crop health, and the result is vigorous growth of plantings. With healthy soil, a crop can out-compete weeds for sunlight and resources, and the plants can grow through a certain amount of insect damage. But growing a crop is only half the story here. Pleasant Grove Farms also has the capability to process, clean, and package its grains for market, as well as grain from other organic growers. Seeds are cleaned and sorted with a variety of cleaning machines ranging from time-tested spiral separators to state-of-the-art color sorting machines. Control of storage pests is a challenge with any farm commodity, and even more so in an organic operation. Pleasant Grove Farms fumigates silos of grain with food-grade carbon dioxide, slowly introducing the gas from the bottom until it vertically displaces all oxygen out the open top. Concentrations of carbon dioxide are monitored throughout the column until complete saturation is achieved, then the top is closed. This effectively suffocates and desiccates storage pests in five to six days. Another feature of Pleasant Grove Farms is…
November 9, 2025 at 8:24 PM
katelynsills.com
this is a setup in a series of events to have the full force of the gov come down on bluesky the company for a false reason.

We all should start thinking about how to counter that level of censorship, socially and technically
Homeland Security entry post on Bluesky, with a clip by Jay and text.
October 18, 2025 at 7:18 AM
katelynsills.com
Another example: www.yahoo.com/news/article...?
The Hanover Park Police Department shared a Facebook post in August announcing Bojovic’s recent graduation from the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy, adding that he had started “an intensive 15 weeks of field training and evaluation as he continues preparing to serve the Hanover Park community.” CNN has reached out to the Hanover Park Police for comment and has attempted to contact Bojovic. “Radule Bojovic violated our nation’s laws and was living ILLEGALLY in the United States for 10 years—what kind of police department gives criminal illegal aliens badges and guns? It’s a felony for aliens to even possess a firearm. A law enforcement officer who is actively breaking the law,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement to CNN Thursday.
October 17, 2025 at 4:41 AM
katelynsills.com
For example: apnews.com/article/chic...
U.S. Justice Department attorney Sean Skedzielewski laid blame with “one-sided and selectively edited media reports.” He also said it wouldn’t be possible to immediately distribute cameras. “I understand that. I would not be expecting agents to wear body-worn cameras they do not have,” Ellis said, adding that the details could be worked out later. “DHS will continue to oppose all efforts to vilify law enforcement and prop up the cause of violent rioters,” said Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “Were a court to enter such an order in the future, that would be an extreme act of judicial activism.” Ellis said cameras would provide evidence to back up how agents handle confrontations with protesters. Ellis said the field director of the enforcement effort must appear in court Monday.
October 17, 2025 at 4:39 AM
katelynsills.com
This person is the unhinged liar representing DHS/ICE in every press story. She doesn't even have a wiki page. She graduated college in 2016.
Tricia McLaughlin's LinkedIn where she is apparently currently still Communications Director for Vivek 2024.
October 17, 2025 at 4:37 AM
katelynsills.com
Less than a week ago, the Pentagon announced its counter-narcotics operations in the region would not be led by the Miami-based Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military activities in Latin America. Instead, the Pentagon said a task force was being created that would be led by II Marine Expeditionary Force, a unit capable of rapid overseas operations that is based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. That decision came as a surprise to U.S. military-watchers, since a combatant command like Southern Command would normally lead any high-profile operations. Earlier on Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the admiral who leads U.S. Southern Command will step down at the end of this year, two years ahead of schedule, in a surprise move.
October 17, 2025 at 2:18 AM
katelynsills.com
It might sound pessimistic to see, as Coates does, the likelihood of many losses looming ahead, even as we fight for wins. But if you consider the long history of the problem at hand, it releases you from bright-kid syndrome, from the illusion that you yourself are going to have every answer or fix the world. You understand that to do so is impossible. You are—at most—going to be one piece of that solution in a chain of many people that begins before you were born and continues after you die.
October 1, 2025 at 12:53 AM
katelynsills.com
House Judiciary GOP Youtube account is having some trouble with their propaganda today.

They started a livestream called "TEST" and then the video petered out in the middle of them calling cities unsafe to walk at night due to leftists.
House Judiciary GOP live stream called "TEST 9.26.25" seems to be having technical issues. Screen reads "Battery level low. Exchange battery."
September 29, 2025 at 5:15 PM
katelynsills.com
September 28, 2025 at 11:40 PM
katelynsills.com
Why are all the bribes lately for $50,000? nymag.com/intelligence...
litany of concerns regarding Lewandowski and questioning whether he should have a top-secret security clearance. Lewandowski had, according to the memo, been accused of receiving $50,000 directly from the Chinese Communist Party as well as money from Israel's Likud Party without disclosing the payments on his DHS background form. (A DHS official denied these claims.)
September 23, 2025 at 1:03 AM
katelynsills.com
Sure thing! If you go to "Chat" and then click on the settings icon there, it will let you turn it off:
Chat settings: allow new messages from Everyone, Users I follow, No one
September 20, 2025 at 1:14 AM
katelynsills.com
Substack promoted self-identified Nazis in my feed yesterday
My substack feed has a "from the archives" promoted post by Cremieux, aka Jordan Lasker, self-described "Jewish White Supremacist Nazi."
September 7, 2025 at 6:40 PM
katelynsills.com
On July 16th he posted on Facebook:

2/
“A lot of misconceptions about ICE “arrests.” Current law requires that EVERY adult illegal alien be detained, but unless they’re being held on a criminal charge, a detained alien is free to go anytime they want. They just aren’t free to go back into our country.”
August 8, 2025 at 6:37 PM
katelynsills.com
Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA05) doesn't understand basic immigration law, despite being the chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.

On July 8th, he posted on Facebook:

1/
“We should all agree on the rule of law. The law REQUIRES EVERY illegal alien to be detained until they are deported or their case is resolved. ICE is enforcing that law. If you don’t like it, change the law, don’t attack those enforcing it. Looking at you, Karen and Gavin.”
August 8, 2025 at 6:37 PM
katelynsills.com
WTF Perplexity AI has deal with Truth Social

finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-m...
Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity, said, “We’re excited to partner with Truth Social to bring powerful AI to an audience with important questions. Curiosity is the engine of change, and Perplexity’s AI is developed to empower curiosity by delivering direct, reliable answers with transparent citations that allow anyone to dig deeper.”
August 6, 2025 at 6:46 PM
katelynsills.com
And this author's note afterwards....
Or perhaps our fascination with kings and autocracies is more innate. As Sir Terry Pratchett once put it, it's as if even the most intelligent person has this little blank spot in their heads where someone's written: "Kings. What a good idea." In the decade or so before this inflection point, however, the story was very different. There was a dreadful murmuring around the globe suggesting that autocracy was not merely surging, but better: more efficient and effective than liberal democracies could ever hope to be. "Wouldn't it be better," some began to mutter, "if we had someone in charge who didn't have to listen to so many useless little people?" And it is a curious correlation that, during this moment of self-doubt, fantasy's fixation with autocracy not only grew in intensity, but grew strangers. For it was then that we saw fewer stories invoking a traditional, romanticized ideal of divine rule wielded by beneficient patriarchs, and in their place came a way of fantasy that embraced if not celebrated the capricious cruelties of autocratic regimes. And we loved it. We eagerly gobbled up tales of crude, primitive worlds were petty resentments, sexual sadism, and sheer stupidity regularly led to the torture, deprivation, and deaths of thousands. We delighted in the piques and feuds of aristocrats placed beyond the rule of law, and sat captivated as... privileged princes indulged in murder, rape, and the sexual assault and torture of children, without even a gesture toward justice... More and more, it becomes impossible to deny that autocrats--like any ruler-- are but men, yet men with no obligation to listen to their people, and thus acknowledge reality. This, in turn, makes them fools: fools that are very difficult to dislodge from their thrones, true, but fools nonetheless. "Kings. What a good idea." The idea is powerful, and seductive, and should not be underestimated. To be a civilization of any worth, however, means acknowledging the idea--and then condemning it as laughably, madly stupid. May we come to live in such a worthier world, and soon.
July 21, 2025 at 5:11 AM
katelynsills.com
I feel like more people should know that "cloud seeding" is a real thing and that *it specifically* is not a conspiracy theory.

It's a regular occurrence in California water management, as crazy as that sounds.

Here's a state water report from 2023 with a summary water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-...
Cloud Seeding in California Winter orographic cloud seeding (cloud seeding where wind blows over a mountain range causing clouds and rain or snow by lifting the air) has been practiced in California since the early 1950s. Most of the projects are along the central and southern Sierra Nevada, with some in the Coast Ranges. The projects generally use silver iodide as the active seeding agent, supplemented by dry ice if aerial seeding is done. Silver iodide can be applied from ground generators or from airplanes. Occasionally, other agents, such as liquid propane, have been used. In recent years, some projects applied hygroscopic materials (substances that take up water from the air) as supplemental seeding agents. North American Weather Consultants (NAWC) performed a cloud seeding operation in the northern part of the Feather River watershed and a portion of the Pit River and McCloud River watersheds during February and April of 1989 (North American Weather Consultants 1989). NAWC conducted cloud seeding operations in the Kings River watershed during 2010 and 2011 (North American Weather Consultants 2011). The report indicates the effect of cloud seeding was between +1.5percent and +8.8 percent. The corresponding benefit:cost ratio of 3:1 to 10:1 was estimated. In 1992, one of the historically dry years in California, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) evaluated the average value of new water from the Feather River basin to be approximately $30 per acre-foot (Reinking et al. 1995). The drought water bank in 1992 paid $50 per acre-foot for real, new water at the Delta in the
July 15, 2025 at 3:53 AM
katelynsills.com
Very taken with this tiny pansy that has decided to 1) regrow from years ago 2) in the gravel driveway outside of any pot.

become ungovernable yada yada
A small purple-white pansy grows in rocks outside of a wine barrel planter
July 12, 2025 at 10:37 PM
katelynsills.com
Jesus Christ, the entire Social Security Administration is a propaganda arm for Trump now
Social Security Applauds Passage of Legislation Providing Historic Tax Relief for Seniors The Social Security Administration (SSA) is celebrating the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, a landmark piece of legislation that delivers long-awaited tax relief to millions of older Americans. The bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits, providing meaningful and immediate relief to seniors who have spent a lifetime contributing to our nation's economy. “This is a historic step forward for America’s seniors,” said Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano. “For nearly 90 years, Social Security has been a cornerstone of economic security for older Americans. By significantly reducing the tax burden on benefits, this legislation reaffirms President Trump’s promise to protect Social Security and helps ensure that seniors can better enjoy the retirement they’ve earned." The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries, providing relief to individuals and couples. Additionally, it provides an enhanced deduction for taxpayers aged 65 and older, ensuring that retirees can keep more of what they have earned. Social Security remains committed to providing timely, accurate information to the public and will continue working closely with federal partners to ensure beneficiaries understand how this legislation may affect them.
July 3, 2025 at 11:04 PM
katelynsills.com
Tell American Airlines to end their support for the BBB:
July 3, 2025 at 5:34 PM
katelynsills.com
What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned but never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest. And now in that spirit, that spirit of an America which has never been, and which may never be; nay, which never will be except as the conscience and courage of Americans create it; yet in the spirit of that America which lies hidden in some form in the aspirations of us all; in the spirit of that America for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying;
June 27, 2025 at 8:57 PM
katelynsills.com
"The Spirit of Liberty," a 1944 speech by Judge Learned Hand:
I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.
June 27, 2025 at 8:57 PM
katelynsills.com
went to block, already blocked 👍
JD Vance's supposed bsky profile
June 18, 2025 at 11:43 PM
katelynsills.com
Mutual Aid in the Age of Fascism www.bostonreview.net/articles/mut...
Timpona and Ahmad quickly established that the first abduction case and the kidnap victim were the same person: Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish Tufts University PhD student on a valid visa who’d been surrounded by masked plainclothes officers, handcuffed, and hustled into an unmarked car. The officers did not show their IDs—which revealed them to be ICE agents—until after they’d taken her phone and backpack and restrained her. And, although a federal judge ordered that night that Öztürk could not be removed from the state or the country until a court ruled on jurisdictional matters, ICE had already driven her to a detention facility in northeastern Vermont and the next day to a notoriously brutal private ICE detention lockup in Louisiana; her visa had been revoked without notice four days before the arrest. Öztürk’s offense: coauthoring an op-ed in the student newspaper urging the university to divest from Israel. LUCE’s rapid responders have three tasks: verify, document, witness. They were not rapid enough to do the last one; Öztürk’s abduction had taken less than two minutes. But they could verify and document. Canvassing door to door, they learned that two unmarked vehicles had been parked in the area for two days. Neighbors showed them phone videos, but most were illegible. Then someone contributed their building’s front-door surveillance video. In it, Öztürk’s face is recognizable, the agents’ efficient movements chillingly clear. “The fact that you can hear Rümeysa screaming makes it particularly horrifying,” noted Ahmad.
June 8, 2025 at 4:51 AM
katelynsills.com
Gavin Newsom tweets: "The Secretary of Defense is now threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens. This is deranged behavior"
June 8, 2025 at 4:35 AM