Michael Messner

Mentoring might have benefited young Donald When I was 10, I went camping with Donnie Hallstone and his dad. We skipped stones in a shallow creek and cooked out on a fire. In the evening light,

My piece about Trump's splashing his name and face all over everything. Sadly, the editor removed a key word from the rebuke I received when I was a youngster: should read, "writes his name on shithouse walls." www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_v...

Death toll from Iran school bombing reportedly rises to almost 150 Strike on girls’ elementary school in south of Iran has killed 148 people and injured 95 others, according to Iran state media

This is not "collateral damage." It is always civilians who suffer the most when nation states wage war. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran has no mandate – or legal basis US president violates UN charter just days into his Board of Peace era, and chooses to take the biggest gamble of his administration

"In the Board of Peace, however, there is no requirement for Trump to justify himself. There are no rules other than those giving Trump the power to make them up as he goes along." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

YouTube video by Rutgers University Press "The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024" ("John Steinbeck")

February 27 is the 124th anniversary of Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck's birth. The 1919 senior class president is also Salinas High School's most famous alum. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvv9...

thanks for sharing this important piece.

The Pride flag at the Stonewall Monument is re-raised!

New Yorkers won’t let Donald Trump erase LGBTQ+ history, or trample the rights of our LGBTQ+ neighbors.

What's the Matter with Florida? An Interview with Zachary Levenson A discussion about Florida's censorship of sociology and teaching under authoritarianism

This week at Group Threat, I spoke with @grundrza.bsky.social about Florida's censorship regime, teaching under authoritarianism, and how folks are coping (or not).

always bears repeating that this is NOT a financial decision. jeff bezos is worth over 250 billion dollars. he can afford to lose many millions and never even notice it. this is, at its core, a political and personal decision by bezos to destroy the post

"Masculinity, Empathy, and the American High School: A Dialogue with Mike Messner" - Sociologists Talking Real Sh*t In this episode of Sociologist Talking, James welcomes Mike Messner to discuss Mike's new book, 'The High School,' which examines the sociological significance of high school yearbooks from Salinas Hi...

It was a pleasure to talk about The High School with James McKeever on his podcast, "Sociologists Talking Real Sh*t" sociologiststalkingrealshit.buzzsprout.com/1214180/epis...

#Pinks #ProudBlue
Combatting the regime’s whitewashing of history and our rich heritage is very important to me. This month I try to make a Black History post everyday. Happy Black History Month! 💙

Trump-administration officials and MAGA influencers have repeatedly called these activists “violent” and said they are involved in “riots.” But the resistance in Minnesota is largely characterized by a conscious, strategic absence of physical confrontation. Activists have made the decision to emphasize protection, aid, and observation. When matters escalate, it is usually the choice of the federal agents. Of the three homicides in Minneapolis this year, two were committed by federal agents. “There’s been an incredible, incredible response from the community. I’ve seen our neighbors go straight from allies to family—more than family—checking in on each other, offering food and rides for kids and all kinds of support, alerting each other if there’s ICE or any kind of danger,” Malika Dahir, a local activist of Somali descent, told me. If the Minnesota resistance has an overarching ideology, you could call it “neighborism”—a commitment to protecting the people around you, no matter who they are or where they came from. The contrast with the philosophy guiding the Trump administration couldn’t be more extreme. Vice President Vance has said that “it is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say, ‘I want to live next to people who I have something in common with. I don’t want to live next to four families of strangers.’” Minnesotans are insisting that their neighbors are their neighbors whether they were born in Minneapolis or Mogadishu. That is, arguably, a deeply Christian philosophy, one apparently loathed by some of the most powerful Christians in America.

One thing I found deeply moving about resistance in the Twin Cities was the universalism of loving your neighbor, the philosophy driving the opposition to the ICE/BP invasion. I couldn't help but notice the contrast with the blood and soil-ism of Miller and Vance. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

#Epstein

#EpsteinFiles

1600 Pennsylvania Ave

The best part of this is that Karoline Leavitt "proved" her point by posting the first photo that shows up when you Google Greenland. Because yes, that little iceberg is definitely the whole country!

Trump’s return chills embattled LGBTQ book industry: ‘They’re stepping back’ President Trump’s return to office has fueled the grassroots forces that have driven a spike in LGBTQ book bans in recent years, creating a notable chill in the market for queer stories, according to authors and others in the publishing industry.

Several AABB members spoke with The Hill about the impact of book bans on the industry. This piece raises big questions, not just for our leader in government, but for our leaders in publishing as well.

We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together. And you can’t get rid of one without getting rid of the other.” — Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Photo of Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at a podium. DSA logo.

Donald Trump links threats to seize Greenland to Nobel prize snub in letter US president says he no longer feels the need to think ‘purely of peace’ in letter to Norwegian prime minister

as though he was ever thinking "purely of peace." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The Trump administration is not just trying to censor free speech. They’re trying to criminalize it

Just like they’re trying to take away our right to free assembly-by literally KILLING people like Renee Good

Don’t let them revoke our Constitutional freedoms

FIGHT!

I stand with Mark Kelly

10 Crucial Things You Can Do in 2026 Your activism will be even more important this year

Your activism will be even more important this year.

Here are 10 crucial things you can do in 2026. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/what-you-can-do-in-2026

The ‘Putinization’ of US foreign policy has arrived in Venezuela Trump is no longer bending the rules – he is demolishing them, with consequences far beyond Caracas

"Russian commentators have frequently suggested that Latin America lies in America’s domain just as Ukraine was under the Russian shadow. Vladimir Putin thinks the same of much of eastern Europe. Xi Jinping will draw his own conclusions."

Apparently this attack was originally planned for Christmas.

I'm losing track of how many countries a man livid he wasn't given the Nobel Peace Prize has illegally bombed.

Iran. Venezuela. Nigeria. Afghanistan. Iraq. Libya. Pakistan. Somalia. Syria. Yemen.

Not to mention threatening to annex Greenland and Canada and invade Panama.

How effective is protesting? According to historians and political scientists: very From emancipation to women’s suffrage, civil rights and BLM, mass movement has shaped the arc of US history

Protest matters; keep at it in '26! www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Will my kid be a pro athlete? Study finds what parents think Many children grow up dreaming – or maybe even expecting – that they will become a star in football, basketball or whatever their favorite sport may be.Most parents have more realistic expectations of...

when I was a teaching assistant for Harry Edwards, circa 1979, he used to say that your chances of getting hit by a falling piece of Skylab were greater than your chances of becoming a pro athlete.
news.osu.edu/will-my-kid-...

A Harvard scholar’s ouster exposes a crisis of institutional integrity | Eric Reinhart The dismissal of a a renowned health leader who refused to ignore Palestine highlights false claims of universality in human rights, global health and academia

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Trump's response to the deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner says it all Friends,

Trump's response to the deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner says it all.


Some thoughts...
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/trumps-response-to-the-deaths-of

🔥 @repdeliaramirez to @KristiNoem: “Bottom Line: You lie with impunity. You reject checks & balances. You ignore Congress & the courts… you can either resign, Trump will fire you, or you’ll be impeached.

You’re going to be held accountable. I’m going to make sure of that.”

"Instead, we should deny the entire framing of the natalism debate."

This is the piece I've been waiting for as legacy media has spent the last couple of years sanewashing far-right pro-natalism.

Sad to hear of the passing of Wilson "Woody" Powell, Korean War vet, longtime activist in Veterans For Peace. His story of empathy and reconciliation with the Korean people was deeply moving. Short video clips from my interview with him here: www.guyslikemebook.com/powell?fbcli...