Rob Mickey

How severe is the political pessimism of young Americans? Somewhat buried in the pre-Thanksgiving conversation, Dartmouth University's Brendan Nyhan offered an interesting observation in an essay for the New York Times. "[T]he scale of the protests" targetin...

The Times piece by @brendannyhan.bsky.social about No Kings made me curious about the political activism of young people over time. So I pulled some CES data and made some charts. www.pbump.net/o/how-severe...

This is genius. Reminds me of when students combine AI with their own writing.

like watching a concert pianist play the flight of the bumblebee. Nobody says they're not gonna do shit quite like chuck schumer. watch the master at work:

Elected regents make things different here (and they're entrenched in the state constitution), but you're right -- nothing lasts forever.

That "at this time" in the footnote is pretty dark, too.

Warning to you holiday present-givers: if you give somebody a Ninja Scoop and Swirl Ice Cream and Soft Serve Maker, they might get kinda obsessed--like Alec Guinness in Bridge on the River Kwai obsessed. And they're liable to spend ALL OF THEIR TIME making you stuff. It's great, but it's....a lot.

THIS IS GONNA BE A DAMNED LONG MOVIE.

• If the U.S. military operation to interdict and destroy suspected narcotraFicking vessels is a “non-international armed conflict,” as the Trump Administration suggests, orders to “kill everybody,” which can reasonably be regarded as an order to give “no quarter,” and to “double-tap” a target in order to kill survivors, are clearly illegal under international law. In short, they are war crimes. • If the U.S. military operation is not an armed conflict of any kind, these orders to kill helpless civilians clinging to the wreckage of a vessel our military destroyed would subject everyone from SECDEF down to the individual who pulled the trigger to prosecution under U.S. law for murder.

Highlighted sentence at the end of the document reads: Again, the bottom line is that, since orders to kill survivors of an attack at sea are “patently illegal,” anyone who issues or follows such orders can and should be prosecuted for war crimes, murder, or both.

Former US military lawyers speak out:

"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."

Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes

1/2

Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88 A theatrical sensation since the 1960s, whose dramas included Arcadia, The Real Thing and Leopoldstadt, Stoppard also had huge success as a screenwriter

“He combined more than 30 plays for the theatre with a steady stream of works for television and radio, and with screenplays including an adaptation of John le Carré’s The Russia House, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and a joint credit for the Oscar-winning screenplay of Shakespeare in Love.”

Yeah, when you saw me

Also Chuck Shipan!

First Secretary of Defense you could defeat by painting a tunnel on the side of a boulder.

Opinion | The Boomers Are Protesting Trump. Where Is Gen Z?

Great piece from @brendannyhan.bsky.social about lackluster protest among youth. An under-appreciated point is a 20-year-old’s frame of reference: they’ve literally never experienced US politics with healthy political parties that follow democratic norms.
Gift link.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/o...

On Nov. 22, Vahid Abedini, an Iranian Studies professor at University of Oklahoma, was boarding a flight to attend the Middle East Studies Assn mtg in Washington, D.C. when he was detained by ICE.

OU Prof Joshua Landis says "he has been wrongfully detained because he has a valid H-1B visa."

Consider the experiences of the last few years. The racial justice movement that peaked in 2020 ended in disappointment and backlash. The Gaza protests provoked intense conflict without delivering clear political or policy victories for their organizers. Maybe most important, Mr. Trump himself is back in the White House, suggesting a futility to opposition and activism among young people who have only ever known him as the central figure in our politics. He first took the oath of office when today's first-year college students were in elementary school. The electoral choices offered to young people are not much better. Given the realities of our dysfunctional two-party system, the only alternative to a Trump-dominated G.O.P. is the Democratic Party, which is dominated by a decadent gerontocracy whose elites were more likely to attend a wedding in the Hamptons than a No Kings protest on the same day.

@brendannyhan.bsky.social is right: young people are reluctant to come to the defense of institutions that have excluded them, ignored them, and crushed their movements

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/o...

Upcoming deadlines to apply to Syracuse U's great Qualitative and Multi-Method Research 2-week summer program! Fellowships available to cover the costs! Pls circulate widely!

www.maxwell.syr.edu/research/cen...

4,400 likes so far for this:

Roundup on the roundups, Nov. 27 Chicago has spent weeks in the barrel, and now Charlotte, N.C. gets to experience the tender mercies of the deportation campaign.

Roundup on the roundups: I've published a new post assembling fifteen items on deportation, surveillance, ICE / DHS / Border Patrol brutality, and courtroom battles in Charlotte, Chicago, and beyond.

As we all wait for Callais to come down, our piece showing that Shelby County increased the racial turnout gap in most of the covered parts of the country has cleared the replication check and is incoming at JOP.

Gutting the VRA was bad, actually.

Yes, good on Gluesenkamp Perez for calling this BS out. Shouldn't whine about backsliding and then wink and nod at Chicago nonsense.

The plan: to de-radicalize QAnon folks we’re gonna elect each one to Congress for 5 years.

The President Is Losing Control of Himself Donald Trump’s outbursts on social media this week were different than usual.

This is a new and dire development in the ongoing American constitutional crisis. The voters, Congress, and, yes, the U.S. military must all now be more vigilant than at any time in our modern history.

www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Absolutely incredible; after shooting Marimar Martinez 5 times and arresting her on claims that she rammed them and pulled a gun, prosecutors have now moved to dismiss ALL criminal charges against her and her codefendant.

Proud of our rabbi and shul tonight:

A reporter asks if Mamdani stands by calling Trump a fascist. Mamdani starts to give a delicate answer.

Trump (smiles, pats Mamdani's arm): "That's OK, you can just say yes. It's easier. I don't mind."

Reporter to Trump: Would you feel comfortable living in NYC under a Mamdani mayoralty?

Trump: "I would. I really would. Especially after the meeting, absolutely."

Great work here!

The partisan divide has grown, too. The wealthiest 100 tended to give more to Republicans than to Democrats before last year. But giving to the GOP spiked in 2024, with *84%* of donations going to back Republicans or conservative PACs.

Cited me only once -- this essay's bullshit.

The Eric Schickler essay in Larry Bartel's symposium on "What Trump Has Taught Us About Political Science" is one of the most insightful pieces I've read in 2025.

US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.

open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...