H Kapp-Klote
@hkappklote.bsky.social
I write about Chicago, labor, and organizing. Subscribe: https://chicago312.beehiiv.com/
Mendoza launched for mayor standing in front of the right problems — parking meters, property taxes, rent — and offering nothing about what she'd actually do. read more about this in Chicago 312:https://chicago312.beehiiv.com/
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Quotes like this make me sorry that I spend so much time talking about how we have to stop underestimating the moderate right in Chicago
Palantir put out a 22-point summary of their CEO's book The Technological Republic. It's pitched as a defence of the West, but if you read it through the VDA framework, verification, deliberation, accountability, what it's actually doing looks rather different. twitter-thread.com/t/2045574398...
This Friday, Illinois Signal Collective ran a quick vertical video training for organizers from ICIRR, AAMP, COFI, and Equity and Transformation, all heading to advocate in Springfield this Wednesday. You can't teach your way past being willing to look a little silly on camera — this room did it!
Really grateful to have gotten to attend the ribbon cutting at Brighton Park Neighborhood Council's new building, eleven years in the making. Nice to see electeds, neighbors and organizers gathered to celebrate something, instead of dealing with all of Midway Blitz. Congrats, BPNC!
More Perfect Union@moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 4mo agoA worker died at an Amazon warehouse in Oregon last week. For more than an hour, workers were instructed to continue working as the man lay dead. One worker wanted to help, but a manager told them to “Just turn around and not look. Let’s get back to work," according to @thewesternedge.bsky.social.
already, local utility comed says it has more than 75 large-load projects that are waiting to be connected to the power grid. collectively, just these projects are expected to draw more than 2.8 gigawatts of energy—more than comed's highest-ever peak demand of 2.4 gigawatts.
Regulators OK ComEd’s plan to increase deposit costs for large-load projects like data centers
Commission calls the order an ‘important first step’ but initiates proceedings to dig deeper
nprillinois.org
This is awesome: buff.ly/ipZr7kg
Chicago Turns All Public School IDs Into Library Cards To Boost Student Access
Chicago Public Library and CPS announced the expansion of The 81 Club, building on a pilot launched in 2022 to give students access to the library system's vast collection and databases.
blockclubchi.co
Happening now: an anti-war protest is gathering in Chicago's Federal Plaza over US/Israeli attacks on Iran & Lebanon. Iranian & US officials announced a 2 week ceasefire yesterday. That's now in question after Israel extensively bombed Lebanon earlier today, reportedly killing over 250 people.
I am not invested in the left as a briar patch of subcultures. I am invested in the left as an ecosystem of political projects, many of which have overlapping interests and concerns. These approaches are not interchangeable and are sometimes diametrically opposed.
I wish there was a world where a media smear campaign against The Third Way, for all of the harm they've done over the decades, could gain frictionless traction in the way that their campaign against Piker has.
Re: Dem politicians using social media, trying to take cues from Mamdani, but without sharing his policy views: "If you’re doing untrustworthy stuff in the real world, or if your actions don’t align with what you’re building an audience around on social, you’re not gonna win hearts and minds."
H Kapp-Klote@hkappklote.bsky.social · 4mo agoI think you'd like this piece btw www.linkedin.com/posts/gabrie...
All of this feels less important to me than running campaigns that solve people's problems and provide real solutions to what's broken in government.
Who Up Socializing Their Summit, MSW (NOT A MAN)@acabcalloway.bsky.social · 4mo agoIt's a general observation. Wisconsin's successes come from decades of electoral organizing, including candidate research and recruitment and robust field efforts. I don't think we get a Dem as Mayor of Waukesha with an influencer campaign.
I hope a candidate that Only Posts doesn't win. I don't think Posting is a good or informed understanding of what a lot of candidates did differently these last few races.
Who Up Socializing Their Summit, MSW (NOT A MAN)@acabcalloway.bsky.social · 4mo agoThinking locally, Demi Palacek definitely ran a more "influencer" style, comms-forward campaign but she also did a LOT of field and was also coordinating with an extremely prominent federal candidate and her field efforts. If Demi only Posted she would not win.
I don't think we need Posting or Posting candidates, I think we need people who are able to experiment and choose actual meaningful action in a way reaches people who aren't tapped into organizing already.
Who Up Socializing Their Summit, MSW (NOT A MAN)@acabcalloway.bsky.social · 4mo agoThinking locally, Demi Palacek definitely ran a more "influencer" style, comms-forward campaign but she also did a LOT of field and was also coordinating with an extremely prominent federal candidate and her field efforts. If Demi only Posted she would not win.
divisive. trying to split the left buff.ly/avDORUc
Italian Beef Vs. The Horseshoe: A State Sandwich Showdown Is Heating Up
The horseshoe, a Springfield creation, is often referred to as the unofficial state sandwich. A bill backed by Italian beef devotee Rep. Rick Ryan aims to change that.
blockclubchi.co
I don't entirely agree with this but it's STRIKING that even David Plouffe is saying it
I promise you that people on the right are also vicious to each other. What then explains their power?
in response to the various largely popular millionaire and billionaire tax efforts, the rich are aggressively exerting their political muscle, going from less than 1% pre-Citizens United to nearly 20% of all political spending in the last election cycle www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Cascadia Daily News@cascadiadaily.com · 4mo agoAn effort to repeal the new 'millionaires tax' sould have to collect 154,000 voters' signatures by June 10, if the court allows it to move forward.
“There's so many needs that American families have and we so often have to hear ‘There’s no money for that.’ Well, there’s lots and lots of money. And lo and behold sometimes they manage to find it for things that the American people don’t even support and won’t benefit from” @amyhanauer.bsky.social
Billionaire fortunes have reached all-time highs under Trump. So has the movement to tax them
Residents in at least 10 states are organizing campaigns to tax wealth in order to fund schools and other social services
theguardian.com
wrote about how rage at America's wealthiest, particularly in tech (Musk, Zuck, Thiel), and the inequality of a new gilded age is powering a wave of efforts to tax the rich — out of organizing and anger that's built from Occupy to the 2016 Bernie campaign to Zohran's election. @us.theguardian.com
Billionaire fortunes have reached all-time highs under Trump. So has the movement to tax them
Residents in at least 10 states are organizing campaigns to tax wealth in order to fund schools and other social services
theguardian.com
Over half the country doesn't vote and there are reasons for that but engaging with those demographics might mean that certain groups might lose power, which is unacceptable to them. It's better to be kings of nothing than not be king anymore.
This worldviews feels so bleak to me, after years of local government + organizing. This particular strategy is exciting to me because it’s actually *working* — and there are more people than ever in smaller races where this can turn the tides, willing to engage with this group. Why is he mad?
Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · 4mo agoA few lefties are losing their minds over this, and insisting the way to win is to activate habitual nonvoters. To which my response is: be my guest! Give it a try! See how it works out.
Thinking about Fritz Kaegi's election loss today as another round of property taxes is due in Cook County. I looked back on this piece I wrote for @placesjournal.bsky.social in 2018. Historian @tracylsteffes.bsky.social already told us all this was gonna happen. placesjournal.org/article/chic...
