Jessica Pishko
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jesspish.bsky.social
Jessica Pishko
@jesspish.bsky.social
38K followers 1.8K following 1.5K posts
she/her
Book on sheriffs & democracy
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/707263/the-highest-law-in-the-land-by-jessica-pishko/
Repped by @rhaliterary
DM for Signal or email [email protected]
“Women aren’t typically this crazy about politics.”
Posts Replies Media Videos
jesspish.bsky.social
also our favorite sheriff
Lamb launched his campaign at a time when SNAP, the government food benefit program formerly known as food stamps, has become a flashpoint in federal politics. Trump has sought to pause the flow of benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program while the government shutdown stretches into its second month. Lamb compared the situation to a video he had seen on social media about bears at national parks who can’t survive in the wild if park visitors feed them too much. “Look, all of us here are more than happy to help our brothers, and sisters, our neighbors,” he said. But “42 million people is a lot of people. … We’re paying for that.” “The government should never be shut down,” he said jokingly. “Partly because we start to realize how much we don’t need ‘em!”
November 11, 2025 at 4:29 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
RIP to this "progressive sheriff"
lailluminator.com/briefs/orlea...
The PAC only took in one donation during the entirety of 2024 — $275 from Hutson herself — and only had $97 available in its account at the end of last year, according to campaign finance documents.
November 10, 2025 at 4:47 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
Mood (art by my teen)
November 10, 2025 at 3:42 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
This is the intake room at the Memphis jail, thanks to Memphis Safe Task force. It's 200 men.
October 30, 2025 at 12:33 AM
jesspish.bsky.social
I don't want to overdo my personal hobby horse, but this is an example of "sheriff policing mentality" over progressive urban police (both bad but in different ways).
Trump was a unique opportunity. Not only do sheriffs represent an idealized working- class America as depicted by Andy Griffith but they also represent a type of law enforcement that meshed with Trump’s idea of the world and his view on policing: virulently racist, anti- government, profit- seeking, anti- academic, and quasi- vigilante. Trump sought, and sheriffs delivered, the type of populist policing that Trump believed was in line with his vision of the world. Long secure in the knowledge that the laws are just recommendations, patronage is a right, and masculinity is a virtue, the humble county sheriff, that American icon, became the soldiers in Trump’s culture war. It’s no coincidence that sheriffs as a group are almost entirely white men and tend to have more powers in rural counties, places where Trump overwhelmingly won in 2016 and 2020. Even if Trump does not return to office, his actions on policing and his emphasis on the county sheriff as the preferred mode of policing have left a lasting influence on the far right and the future of sheriffs generally.
October 28, 2025 at 12:37 AM
jesspish.bsky.social
Good company at Malaprops @swordsjew.bsky.social
October 21, 2025 at 5:21 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
IYKYK
October 20, 2025 at 7:04 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
Welcome to Asheville.
October 19, 2025 at 9:23 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
cool to offer fake money for murder (this is Tarrio's crypto app)
ICE RAID NEWS. We are offering a special bounty of 10,000,000 $RAID for each corpse identified as a member of a gang #antifa included.
October 15, 2025 at 8:30 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has been getting backlash for her sensibly policy to reduce unneeded traffic stops. Evidently, police are still using McVeigh as an example of how traffic stops are useful.
Author and legal expert Jessica Pishko, who studies the political power of law enforcement in her book “The Highest Law in the Land,” pushed back. “Timothy McVeigh was one guy in 1995. I mean, truth be told, we hope that if someone has bombed a federal building, we’re not relying on a random traffic stop to get that person.”
October 8, 2025 at 2:36 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
You needed this guy, all-American county sheriff
October 7, 2025 at 3:24 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
October 7, 2025 at 3:08 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
Who says shutdowns are all bad?!?
Thomas Massie post on x with a photo of a blue sky with a few light clouds -- "Best thing about government shutdowns...no chemtrails."
October 7, 2025 at 2:34 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
After Reconstruction, the media refused to believe that white supremacists were massacring entire towns of Black people attempting to claim local sovereignty over their own lives. It is not true that violence, even when it's "plain as day," necessarily moves public opinion.
The white- run news transformed this event from a coup that overthrew an elected Republican government into a horror story of armed Black men, turning the massacre into a legitimate act of white self- defense. The Shreveport Times described the event as “the most deplorable and bloody affray ever perpetuated.” Years after the event, white Democrats would periodically fearmonger about a Black militia that would return to overthrow the government, blaming power- hungry Republicans.
October 7, 2025 at 2:00 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
This raid is disgusting, abominable behavior, traumatizing children and families in their homes.
abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...
"They was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other," Watson said. "That's all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where's the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, 'f*** them kids.'"
October 2, 2025 at 6:48 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
Performative masculinity already hit its peak form, it's all been downhill
September 30, 2025 at 1:06 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
uhhhh how to describe an area where houseless people congregate. i know! "vibrant but gritty."
It’s a vibrant but gritty neighborhood of low-slung adobe houses, boarded buildings, razor wire-topped tire dealerships and taco shops.
September 26, 2025 at 5:13 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
Some Democrats are also transforming their military into cops. But they do it in a nice way.
This blue state governor sent the National Guard to her biggest city No guns, no Humvees and no arrests. This deployment looks very different from the way Trump has used soldiers in places like D.C. or Los Angeles. And local police say it’s working.
September 26, 2025 at 5:13 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
Jeremy Carl who retweeted this?
September 25, 2025 at 2:48 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
her bio 🏆
Grazer was introduced to Brooks River as a young cub in 2005. Twenty years later, she is a highly defensive mother bear who is raising her third litter. Her fearsome nature is respected by other bears who often choose to give her space instead of risking a confrontation. This elevates Grazer’s rank in the bear hierarchy above almost all bears except for the largest males. Grazer is a bear willing to take risks, such as bringing young cubs to Brooks Falls, but she also adapts well to changing circumstances. This summer she and her yearling used Brooks Falls infrequently to capitalize on easy fishing elsewhere on the river. There’s almost no place on Brooks River where Grazer cannot fish successfully, so she was primed and ready to feast on this year’s abundant salmon run. Grazer’s continued success showcases her adaptability and survival skills—qualities that she’s teaching her yearling cub, who is also the 2025 Fat Bear Junior champion. Grazer was the 2023 Fat Bear Week champion and became the first mother bear ever to win the title in 2024.
September 24, 2025 at 12:24 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
I am queen of Bluesky, and everything I say represents what all people on Bluesky think.
Cooper Lund (whom I don't know) posting about me: Bluesky really loves demanding something and then getting mad when politicians do it. Why should I take some of you seriously?
September 22, 2025 at 4:17 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
I don't think anyone in political office is prepared for what is still to come. People in sanctuary states should be ready, I think, for the law to no longer protect them.
California Bars ICE Agents From Wearing Masks in the State Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to prevent federal agents from concealing their identities with masks. The law is expected to face a legal challenge.
September 22, 2025 at 3:13 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
Oh no not no DV convictions!! Add DUI and no one could stay in office.
Democrats in Olympia want to have "qualifications" for sheriffs. That's Democrat for "disqualify whoever we disagree with". I know, lets have qualifications for EVERY elected official. I'll help write it up. First, no felony or DV convictions. What should we include on my bill?
September 20, 2025 at 8:44 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
@radleybalko.bsky.social was kind enough to recommend it recently
The first will be on topic: Jessica Pishko’s book “The Highest Law in the Land” is a narration of how the sheriff in the U.S. has become such an integral part of the Trump movement and MAGA, and how they’ve lent a lot of institutional support for it, including some pretty outrageous tactics, and how they’re above the law in much of the country. So that’s one that’s on topic.
September 17, 2025 at 8:52 PM
jesspish.bsky.social
The GOP is claiming a report from 2020 that we don't even know if anyone read somehow caused a stabbing in 2025.
Michael Whatley tweet My opponent Roy Cooper introduced radically soft-on-crime policies—like the ones that let Iryna Zarutska’s murderer roam free—into North Carolina’s justice system. Here’s a shockingly dangerous recommendation from Cooper's 2020 Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice: Recc is to encourage citations and summons in lieu of arrests
September 16, 2025 at 3:06 PM