Kathleen Cole
@kcolempls.bsky.social
political scientist, organizer, knitter, animal rescue, fan of early bedtimes. Currently: Transformative Justice Alliance; formerly: People Over Prosecution, Recall Freeman, MN for Warren.
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
we talk too much about the male loneliness crisis and not enough about the male suckerfication crisis maxread.substack.com/p/prediction...
November 7, 2025 at 5:40 PM
we talk too much about the male loneliness crisis and not enough about the male suckerfication crisis maxread.substack.com/p/prediction...
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
Urgent MSP #Caturday 🧵: these two handsome boys need a loving home as circumstances sadly force their person to part with them.
Bones & Basil are a bonded pair and need to stay together. Both are vaxxed, neutered, and very sociable. 1/
Bones & Basil are a bonded pair and need to stay together. Both are vaxxed, neutered, and very sociable. 1/
November 22, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Urgent MSP #Caturday 🧵: these two handsome boys need a loving home as circumstances sadly force their person to part with them.
Bones & Basil are a bonded pair and need to stay together. Both are vaxxed, neutered, and very sociable. 1/
Bones & Basil are a bonded pair and need to stay together. Both are vaxxed, neutered, and very sociable. 1/
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
Really a wonderful list of ways to organize. Observing and potentially disrupting ICE’s activity is of course a visible and essential tactic right now, and there are a lot of other tactics as well! Many described here.
New resource⚡️ Block it! Don’t Build It. Don’t Fill It. Don’t Fuel It.
A mini-toolkit to take action to slow down and disrupt the government’s kidnapping, detention, and deportation machine.
Info on strategies/tactics, ways to take action, and more:
www.interruptingcriminalization.com/block-it
A mini-toolkit to take action to slow down and disrupt the government’s kidnapping, detention, and deportation machine.
Info on strategies/tactics, ways to take action, and more:
www.interruptingcriminalization.com/block-it
November 22, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Really a wonderful list of ways to organize. Observing and potentially disrupting ICE’s activity is of course a visible and essential tactic right now, and there are a lot of other tactics as well! Many described here.
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
Members of the Constitution, Bylaws, and Rules Committee are complaining about people online (particularly @taylordahlin.com) discussing Cyndy Martin killing a teenager with her car and running from the scene and the "bullying" that they are seeing. taylordahlin.com/f/the-dfls-c...
November 22, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Members of the Constitution, Bylaws, and Rules Committee are complaining about people online (particularly @taylordahlin.com) discussing Cyndy Martin killing a teenager with her car and running from the scene and the "bullying" that they are seeing. taylordahlin.com/f/the-dfls-c...
Zach Lowe imagining hypothetical trades is not Detroit Pistons news. It’s Zach Lowe news, at best. Wish sports media knew the difference.
November 21, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Zach Lowe imagining hypothetical trades is not Detroit Pistons news. It’s Zach Lowe news, at best. Wish sports media knew the difference.
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
The Pistons are 13-2, have won 11-straight and are the NBA's second-best team. Here's a thread of some of my work this past week:
November 19, 2025 at 5:27 PM
The Pistons are 13-2, have won 11-straight and are the NBA's second-best team. Here's a thread of some of my work this past week:
Hearing folks yelling Deeeeetroit Baskeball at the Hawks arena is really something!
November 19, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Hearing folks yelling Deeeeetroit Baskeball at the Hawks arena is really something!
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."
November 18, 2025 at 6:48 AM
"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."
Did you know you can help a shelter animal by bringing them into your home for the holidays?
Holidays are hard on animals in the shelter because staff and volunteers are away so they sit isolated in their kennels all day.
Sign up to short term foster an animal in need!
Holidays are hard on animals in the shelter because staff and volunteers are away so they sit isolated in their kennels all day.
Sign up to short term foster an animal in need!
Pet fostering application
Everyone can apply to foster animals from Animal Care & Control.
www.minneapolismn.gov
November 18, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Did you know you can help a shelter animal by bringing them into your home for the holidays?
Holidays are hard on animals in the shelter because staff and volunteers are away so they sit isolated in their kennels all day.
Sign up to short term foster an animal in need!
Holidays are hard on animals in the shelter because staff and volunteers are away so they sit isolated in their kennels all day.
Sign up to short term foster an animal in need!
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
Just thinking again how Democrats asked people to accept short-term suffering in order to give space to prevent long-term, worse suffering and then said, "Thanks for suffering in the short-term. You'll get to suffer long-term too so that our Thanksgiving plans don't get disrupted."
November 10, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Just thinking again how Democrats asked people to accept short-term suffering in order to give space to prevent long-term, worse suffering and then said, "Thanks for suffering in the short-term. You'll get to suffer long-term too so that our Thanksgiving plans don't get disrupted."
It is absolutely WILD to have people call me a moderate because I'm explaining a collective action problem on the left.
I'm not some fucking moderate asking people to come to the center. I am a leftist asking other leftists to get serious about wielding power.
I'm not some fucking moderate asking people to come to the center. I am a leftist asking other leftists to get serious about wielding power.
November 9, 2025 at 5:47 PM
It is absolutely WILD to have people call me a moderate because I'm explaining a collective action problem on the left.
I'm not some fucking moderate asking people to come to the center. I am a leftist asking other leftists to get serious about wielding power.
I'm not some fucking moderate asking people to come to the center. I am a leftist asking other leftists to get serious about wielding power.
Jacob Frey is the worst of all possible outcomes. Progressive electeds and orgs could have thrown their weight behind a more viable candidate. But they didn’t. Here’s a quick and dirty explainer about how we ended up with Jacob when most people can’t stand him.
I am still so mad about this that I broke out the colored pencils, so I could do a little RCV explainer. Something is seriously wrong with me that this is what I am doing with my Saturday night, but here goes (a thread):
We wouldn’t need center left orgs if we had progressive electeds and orgs that took seriously the shape of our electorate, how RCV actually works, & were serious about beating Jacob. Either they don’t understand how the shape of our electorate plays out in RCV or they don’t care about beating him.
November 9, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Jacob Frey is the worst of all possible outcomes. Progressive electeds and orgs could have thrown their weight behind a more viable candidate. But they didn’t. Here’s a quick and dirty explainer about how we ended up with Jacob when most people can’t stand him.
I am still so mad about this that I broke out the colored pencils, so I could do a little RCV explainer. Something is seriously wrong with me that this is what I am doing with my Saturday night, but here goes (a thread):
We wouldn’t need center left orgs if we had progressive electeds and orgs that took seriously the shape of our electorate, how RCV actually works, & were serious about beating Jacob. Either they don’t understand how the shape of our electorate plays out in RCV or they don’t care about beating him.
4. Re point 3 … it’s a shame there‘s no center-left orgs who’d push to rank Davis or Jazz first. Nothing exists. All the juice is with asshole developers and committed DSA/young voters.
5. Eric tried his best but he still underrates the media buying Frey’s frame & making it a 2-candidate race.
5. Eric tried his best but he still underrates the media buying Frey’s frame & making it a 2-candidate race.
November 9, 2025 at 6:25 AM
I am still so mad about this that I broke out the colored pencils, so I could do a little RCV explainer. Something is seriously wrong with me that this is what I am doing with my Saturday night, but here goes (a thread):
We wouldn’t need center left orgs if we had progressive electeds and orgs that took seriously the shape of our electorate, how RCV actually works, & were serious about beating Jacob. Either they don’t understand how the shape of our electorate plays out in RCV or they don’t care about beating him.
4. Re point 3 … it’s a shame there‘s no center-left orgs who’d push to rank Davis or Jazz first. Nothing exists. All the juice is with asshole developers and committed DSA/young voters.
5. Eric tried his best but he still underrates the media buying Frey’s frame & making it a 2-candidate race.
5. Eric tried his best but he still underrates the media buying Frey’s frame & making it a 2-candidate race.
November 9, 2025 at 3:37 AM
We wouldn’t need center left orgs if we had progressive electeds and orgs that took seriously the shape of our electorate, how RCV actually works, & were serious about beating Jacob. Either they don’t understand how the shape of our electorate plays out in RCV or they don’t care about beating him.
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity
Australia's extensive solar power penetration makes so much energy that the government wants to offer free electricity at peak hours.
electrek.co
November 6, 2025 at 2:08 PM
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
did u know that CD5 DFL chair, Scott Graham, was not only Perall Warren’s campaign manager, he *also* chaired the shit show that was ward 5 DFL convention.
Scott Graham was also one of the main challengers to the Mpls DFL convention, led the platform to kick DSA out of the DFL & stalked Sam Doten.
Scott Graham was also one of the main challengers to the Mpls DFL convention, led the platform to kick DSA out of the DFL & stalked Sam Doten.
November 6, 2025 at 1:03 PM
did u know that CD5 DFL chair, Scott Graham, was not only Perall Warren’s campaign manager, he *also* chaired the shit show that was ward 5 DFL convention.
Scott Graham was also one of the main challengers to the Mpls DFL convention, led the platform to kick DSA out of the DFL & stalked Sam Doten.
Scott Graham was also one of the main challengers to the Mpls DFL convention, led the platform to kick DSA out of the DFL & stalked Sam Doten.
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
My RCV take: It’s not preventing Minneapolis progressives from achieving desired city-wide results. It is actually showing that progressives are close even when not winning. And it’s affirming something about the electorate that we don’t understand, can’t accept, or don’t know what to do about.
November 5, 2025 at 6:29 PM
My RCV take: It’s not preventing Minneapolis progressives from achieving desired city-wide results. It is actually showing that progressives are close even when not winning. And it’s affirming something about the electorate that we don’t understand, can’t accept, or don’t know what to do about.
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
Also: this data is about women mayors, mostly, but men mayors of color also faced steeper climbs and larger barriers. Donors are less likely to find for all the reasons you say, and race and gender magnify the problem: mayorsinnovation.org/under-pressu...
Under Pressure: How the Unique Challenges Faced by Women Mayors Undermine Democratic Governance
Over the course of our 20 year history as an organization, we’ve heard countless stories from women mayors that inspired us to study and document the challenges and systemic barriers that mayors face ...
mayorsinnovation.org
November 5, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Also: this data is about women mayors, mostly, but men mayors of color also faced steeper climbs and larger barriers. Donors are less likely to find for all the reasons you say, and race and gender magnify the problem: mayorsinnovation.org/under-pressu...
People are out here blaming RCV for Jacob's win. And I cannot stress this enough: RCV had literally nothing to do with it. Everything about this outcome was entirely predictable. Jacob had huge structural advantages: compliant local media, off-cycle election, PAC $, patronage networks.
November 5, 2025 at 6:14 PM
People are out here blaming RCV for Jacob's win. And I cannot stress this enough: RCV had literally nothing to do with it. Everything about this outcome was entirely predictable. Jacob had huge structural advantages: compliant local media, off-cycle election, PAC $, patronage networks.
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
The annoying thing is, this isn't even a counterfactual! RCV allows them to make this choice! They are voting that they do not have a preference between Fateh and Frey and people are pretending that if there weren't two questions before that, they would magically feel differently!
November 5, 2025 at 4:44 PM
The annoying thing is, this isn't even a counterfactual! RCV allows them to make this choice! They are voting that they do not have a preference between Fateh and Frey and people are pretending that if there weren't two questions before that, they would magically feel differently!
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
This is the fantasy that binary would create a winning coalition that doesn’t exist. It will persist as long as RCV doesn’t elect a mayor (even though it did with the most liberal mayor we’ve had in 2013). People will imagine an alternate timeline which can never be disproved.
November 5, 2025 at 4:33 PM
This is the fantasy that binary would create a winning coalition that doesn’t exist. It will persist as long as RCV doesn’t elect a mayor (even though it did with the most liberal mayor we’ve had in 2013). People will imagine an alternate timeline which can never be disproved.
This is just bad journalism/data visualization from Sahan Journal. Fundamentally misunderstands and misrepresents the election. And on top of that, feeds a narrative that Jacob is far more popular than he is.
Interactive map: How Minneapolis neighborhoods voted for mayor
Interactive map: How Minneapolis neighborhoods voted for mayor
See a detailed map of how Minneapolis voted for mayor by precinct.
sahanjournal.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:09 PM
This is just bad journalism/data visualization from Sahan Journal. Fundamentally misunderstands and misrepresents the election. And on top of that, feeds a narrative that Jacob is far more popular than he is.
Reposted by Kathleen Cole
Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.
November 5, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.
This is just not correct. RCV doesn’t split the vote. That is quite literally the point. One of the main advantages of RCV (or, single transferable vote) is that it doesn’t create spoilers like SMDP. The problems are again like 2021 structural and strategic, not due to the method of voting.
our terrible mayor. but we have ranked choice voting and no one will acknowledge that at some point we have to coalesce around a single candidate or ranking order, so the progressive candidates split the vote and the result is very likely frey again
November 5, 2025 at 4:54 AM
This is just not correct. RCV doesn’t split the vote. That is quite literally the point. One of the main advantages of RCV (or, single transferable vote) is that it doesn’t create spoilers like SMDP. The problems are again like 2021 structural and strategic, not due to the method of voting.