Building a data center in the US should be far more difficult than building housing, installing a bike lane, or putting a road on a diet.

"In dozens of other countries, governments make it easy for people to navigate labyrinthine tax laws. Ordinary wage-earners receive a pre-filled return from the state, and they can either sign or dispute it. Americans have different, decidedly worse options." - Matt Ribel

Incredible to call this a "confiscation scheme" www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

On this day in 1830, President Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, forcing Indigenous people who had lived in the southeastern U.S. for centuries to migrate west in brutal and dangerous conditions.

Based on the amount of bike traffic I've watched the Cortland St. Bridge sidewalk bypass handle this last year, I project the 606 Extension will need to be 40ft wide. The people yearn for a low-stress North Side river & expressway crossing.

I don't know if a "vibecession" explains this. Seems like folks don't get into their retirement accounts unless they really need to.

Relatedly, Toups' Family Meal is asking for money hard to try to make and deliver 70k meals this summer toupsfamilymeal.com/donate-here/

It's just a vibecession though right economy is actually fine and we're all just whining right www.npr.org/2026/05/27/n...

The company lawyers got to bill for their time getting your city council's signatures on those data center construction NDA's. The regular folks showing up at the public meeting to oppose it are going after work, skipping dinner & their kids' baseball games to make a two minute comment.

This part:

NEW REPORT: After Chicago shut down ShotSpotter in Sept. 2024, CPD response times to priority 1 calls improved by an average of 4.2 minutes. Read more here: uchicago-justice-project.github.io/chicago_crim...

I was concerned when what appears to be an AI-generated short story was named a regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. As an advocate of literature, I decided to protest by writing my own prize-winning short story without AI johnpaulbrammer.substack.com/p/regionally...

Motorcycle night on Lawrence Avenue, it looks like. I wonder what club that is.

Spring finally comes to Chicago.

It’s a beautiful day, Bluesky is open, and people are having a wonderful time.

These days every dad band is a late 90s / early 00's cover group. (And this is fine.)

Yikes. "Bikes Will Not Replace Us." When you're mimicking a white nationalist slogan you've totally lost the plot.

"There must be in-groups the law protects but does not bind, and out groups the law binds but does not protect." - Frank Wilhoit

you're not missing something, this is what is being said: -Burke should only act if CPD doesn't properly investigate -CPD didn't investigate at all -so there is no proof CPD didn't properly investigate -so Burke should not act

Keeping people incarcerated is one of Louisiana's dominant industries.

Stories like this could change this country for the better.

The New Orleans remembers.

A world that doesn't suck is possible

I was just talking about this. AI in a robust social safety net is very different than AI in a scam economy without one.

There isnt a city in North America with the infrastructure to handle this much rain in this period of time without flash flooding. Atlanta:

BREAKING: The City Council votes 28-21 to approve a measure designed to rid the Chicago Police Department of officers with ties to hate groups and far-right extremist organizations. @wttw.bsky.social

Yes the lake really is that color. Yes it really is that big. Yes we do have beaches with public bathrooms and lifeguards and hot dog stands. Yes winter is worth it.

Oh. Some sort of protest rolling past Belmont CTA stop right now.

Here's a version of a conversation we've been having for a while now, about independent media and Where We Go From Here: channel-6.ghost.io/you-are-not-...

I saw January 6th unfold with my own eyes. I was so intrigued by what was happening. I sat there for hours in complete disbelief. And to learn these criminals will be paid $1.7b is just, idk.

It is wild/sad how many Bluesky users see this story and then comment that the family deserved to experience this.

Murder is down 20% in the latest RTCI sample covering the first quarter of 2026. The sample has 557 agencies covering 115 million people. Violent crime is down ~6% and property crime is down more than 11%.

LAUIASANA LAUIASANA They're trying to slop us away. Thery trryn slop ofa wai.

I wish I didn’t know as much about the end of Reconstruction as I do. If you understood what is being unleashed now, how it will touch every aspect of our civic life, and how difficult it will be to undo it, you wouldn’t be able to think about anything else.

And Louisiana is not a "red" state. It's a gerrymandered, voter-suppressed, democratically-underfunded State. But I'm telling you, Black folks are here doing the work everyday. If Louisiana gets better, the country gets betters. By every measure, invest in the South!!!

If you're in Chicago, saw this headline, & thought "Hmm, I wonder if I need flood insurance?" The answer is probably "yes."

NEW: An Oklahoma family was forced to abandon their home after it filled with slick, black goo, reaching gas concentrations at explosive levels. Despite ample evidence of oil and gas pollution, state regulators say they cannot help.

Extremely curious to know how this is legal.

somebody make a graph showing Divvy rides with gas prices

BIG STORY: ICE arrested, shackled and separated Israel and Max Makoka as they were about to board their school bus in Diamondhead, Miss. While one brother endured confinement and pressure to self-deport in a Louisiana prison, the other was sent to a youth home in Texas. Now, they tell their story.

yes. the clearest path to deal with the SCVA ruling is just to say that it wasn’t a constitutionally valid exercise of judicial review. because it wasn’t!

Indistinguishable from 1870s Redeemer rhetoric about "Negro misrule" and the like.

If New Orleans has that thing with time ("where everything takes 10 minutes & also 2 hours"), Chicago has a thing with temperature where sometimes it is 50 but also 75.

Feeling overwhelmed with all of this. LISTEN. Another Louisiana resident (Marshawn is the only name we have) testifies against the state’s racial gerrymander, speaking truth to power up and down the hearing room and predicts how this story will end. Speak your truth, fight and believe.

Louisiana Republicans are threatening to remove & replace New Orleans's mayor, district attorney, & most of the city council.

The future White Moderates want:

Let's check in on that "strong Republican Party" so many national Democratic leaders yearn for:

This whole thread and this point in particular. Especially for Chicago & the CTA.

One thing I’ve confirmed after multiple visits to Japan is that its reputation for having cleaner public spaces is not entirely because people are just littering less in public spaces. They litter less. But they still litter plenty. It’s primarily because someone is paying people to clean up.

Historian of abolition here, history tells us how we got here, to put it succinctly “John Brown was hanged for treason and Robert E. Lee was not.”