dlknowles.bsky.social
Midwest correspondent at The Economist, in Chicago. Before that, in London, Mumbai, Nairobi and DC.
Buy my book: http://shorturl.at/BJOUV
Reach me on Signal: dlknowles.12
4,055 posts
23,613 followers
1,475 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
American communism is suburbs but free
comment in response to
post
Honestly this makes me so much more pro-Mamdani
comment in response to
post
I spend maybe $500 a year on CTA fares I think, and maybe $2-300 on bike maintenance and $300 on my Divvy membership and ebike hire costs. That's almost all my travel within Chicago. Work trips aside, rental cars and taxis are maybe $2k a year on top?
comment in response to
post
That suggests your car insurance was remarkably cheap
comment in response to
post
The USA urban crisis was related to highways not only demolishing cities but also opening up so much new housing while there were no immigrants to replace the people moving out.
comment in response to
post
I did! I always love those things. Been making that argument for a while
comment in response to
post
Very pro this
comment in response to
post
That totally fits. I also think he isn't especially interested in policy and has proven personally quite unprepared for the amount of criticism and questioning a mayor gets
comment in response to
post
That's very kind
comment in response to
post
Yeah my opinion has shifted precisely because of that
comment in response to
post
A lot of lefties won't agree with me because they want hope. I sincerely hope they are right and I am wrong
comment in response to
post
There were some posts I deleted because I didn't get my point across well. My point ultimately was "I think Andrew Cuomo is a really bad candidate like Paul Vallas was but I am worried Mamdani may turn out to disappoint like Brandon Johnson." I may actually be wrong! It's just an opinion
comment in response to
post
Your argument here is literally "you've been posting stuff other people don't agree with and that hurts their feelings" and that's your justification for sending a bunch of mad attacking messages *directly at me*. And the weird thing is you seem otherwise normal
comment in response to
post
You don't have to follow me! This is deranged. I've posted like two things!
comment in response to
post
This is wildly aggressive for no real reason, given that I suspect we'd agree on a surprising amount if we actually talked
comment in response to
post
Mad work
comment in response to
post
Yeah people have memory holed how poorly he performed in the Ohio primary and Senate election in 2022 already
comment in response to
post
While that was alleged, I don't think it was exactly right. He definitely has the apartment in Bridgeport and afaik still spends a bunch of time there. But it does seem like he got it to run for office yes
comment in response to
post
Like, Chuy was filling out sports halls in February when Johnson was still doing events in bars. But then it totally flipped. Maybe the power of the CTU?
comment in response to
post
The way Chuy's campaign fell flat surprised me actually. I interviewed Johnson fairly early and his rise caught my attention when v Logan square friends started talking about him but I still thought Chuy was the stronger progressive challenger to Lori.
comment in response to
post
Yes quite. But I think the race angle is actually partly where they went wrong. The reality was that there were lots of white progressives desperate for an alternative, whereas lots of black conservatives - the types who backed Willie Wilson - mostly voted Johnson despite their convictions
comment in response to
post
Yeah. I'm actually gonna delete it because I think maybe it's unfair to single out CNN, but the reality is that sort of television war reporting is thinning out by the week
comment in response to
post
Indeed!
comment in response to
post
There's an awful lot of deference in a lot of media to the idea that Trump has a mandate to pursue mass deportation and he is most popular on immigration. But this stuff isn't popular! It reminds me an awful lot of the Windrush scandal in Britain
comment in response to
post
The American government is literally picking up the most sympathetic cases - the innocent family members of American soldiers - because those are the people they have data on. This is the inevitable result of setting targets for deportation