Whitney Manzo
whitneymnz.bsky.social
Whitney Manzo
@whitneymnz.bsky.social
Political science, books, soccer, and margaritas
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
This is obscene.
Two panels commemorating the contribution of Black American soldiers towards the liberation of the Netherlands in World War Two have been quietly removed from a cemetery in Limburg. It follows a complaint by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission.
nrc.nl NRC @nrc.nl · 24d
Op Margraten zijn twee panelen over zwarte Amerikaanse bevrijders van Nederland opeens weg. ‘Past bij beleid van de regering-Trump’
November 9, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
Political violence disproportionately hurts people with less power, not people with more power. Political violence will disproportionately hurt people of color and women and LGBTQ people. It’s not fair, but that’s the way it works. Celebrating political violence means at best indifference to that.
Political violence is bad. It usually begets more political violence.

Celebrating political violence is bad. It usually encourages more political violence, against various targets.

Campus shootings are bad. They make everyone on campus less safe.

It's bad that what I wrote here is controversial.
September 10, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
1/ I worked at DoD. I literally cannot imagine lawyers coming up with a legal basis for lethal strike of suspected Venezuelan drug boat.

Hard to see how this would not be "murder" or war crime under international law that DoD considers applicable.

Read expert analysis by @bcfinucane.bsky.social⤵️
Legal Issues Raised by a Lethal U.S. Military Attack in the Caribbean
The Trump administration’s extraordinary lethal attack on this purported smuggling vessel raises significant potential legal issues.
www.justsecurity.org
September 3, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
".. unless Pulte somehow had particular knowledge about issues with Cook's application, which is unlikely, then one has conclude that Pulte handed Fannie and Freddie a list of political enemies and asked for their loan files for review."
August 26, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
THIS IS NOT CONSTITUTIONAL.

They cannot commandeer state and local law enforcement because they want to.

THIS IS NOT LAWFUL.

They cannot use federalized guard or military personnel for civilian law enforcement absent rebellion and insurrection.
Comer: "We're gonna support doing this in other cities if it works out in Washington DC. We spend a lot on our military. Our military has been in many countries around the world for the past two decades walking the streets trying to reduce crime. We need to focus on the big cities in America now."
August 14, 2025 at 2:46 PM
I often hear similar thoughts from a majority of my students. No relationship to partisanship, race, class, etc. "It's all broken, things need to change"
There are some centrist and center-right pundits making earnest pleas about Mr. Mamdani being a threat to the economy, and I don't think they understand that the vast majority of us under 40 don't care. This is not a system that works for us. It doesn't take being a leftist to grasp that.

(1/4)
June 27, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
“Decades of political science research show that societies that are open & pluralistic, w/ high levels of both individual & political rights, are more prosperous, more peaceful & more effective than autocracies that are closed and stagnant.”

Winners of poli sci top prize speak out.
Twenty-one Skytte Prize winner in a joint letter in today's @financialtimes.com : “President Donald Trump and his administration are on a spectacularly dangerous path”

Read more here : www.skytteprize.com/news/twenty-...
Twenty-one Skytte Prize winners speak out | Skytteprize
www.skytteprize.com
May 26, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
I don’t mean to be a caricature, but this just isn’t law. The Supreme Court is always making policy. But this is beyond. “This dicta in an emergency order will reassure the markets but just uh trust us on the law here ok no we’re not overruling Humphrey’s yet and when we do we’ll spare the fed.”
May 22, 2025 at 9:16 PM
My favorite thing is going to "Mexican" restaurants in European countries. If I see it, I'm going. It's always an adventure
europe has many wonderful foodways (i love greece and greek cuisine!) but “european food is uniformly better than american food” is a crock of shit and only holds if your knowledge of american food and foodways is what you’ve seen on TV
April 30, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
This is a law, passed by Congress, that the executive branch is required to enforce, and which was just upheld by an 8-1 Supreme Court decision less than a year ago.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) page on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's website has been removed.
February 1, 2025 at 6:48 PM
I suppose it's nice that my class on the Civil Rights Movement has current material to discuss? 🫠
BREAKING: In a new executive order sent out by the White House, Donald Trump has revoked the federal contractor nondiscrimination executive order, EO 11246, that was signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965 and has protected employees of businesses seeking federal contracts from discrimination ever since.
January 22, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
A gigantic vehicle endangers those who never consented to the danger they face walking, biking, or sitting inside smaller cars. Heavier vehicles pulverize modest-sized ones, & tall front ends obscure a driver’s vision, putting pedestrians and cyclists at risk. Deaths are at 40 year highs.
Gigantic SUVs are a public health threat. Why don’t we treat them like one?
The anti-tobacco playbook could help turn the US public against their beloved oversized cars.
www.vox.com
January 6, 2025 at 6:39 PM
I was in London for July 2019 and for July 2024, and you really can tell a difference. The labor shortage is no joke.
Tomorrow's Independent front page revealing Brexit's catastrophic cost - five years after the UK left the EU.

- New bureaucracy
- Weaker UK exports
- Labour shortages in key sectors
- Less cash for public services
- Huge divorce bill
- 15% long term hit to UK trade

This is the price of populism.
January 6, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
Female content creators on YouTube received significantly more negative feedback for comparable content.

But the removal of public display of dislikes eliminated this gender gap and persistently increased female creator productivity and consumer demand.

sites.google.com/view/maritaf...
November 19, 2024 at 6:16 PM
I love moot court and I hate moot court. The problem is, I always love it when it's time to schedule courses and forget that I hate it until it's too late
November 17, 2024 at 2:18 AM
Bluesky academics, lets get to know each other! Quote this & tell me: 1) a project you are working on & 2) an odd idea/theory you aren’t working on but keep thinking about

1) NC public opinion in the 2024 election
2) The politics of youth sports
November 15, 2024 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Whitney Manzo
@whitneymnz.bsky.social & Susan Roberts look at the 2024 election's gender dynamics--especially generational and the abortion issue--to analyze what it means for the nation's politics.

You can find their new analysis at: www.oldnorthstatepolitics.com

#ncpol
Old North State Politics
"To blog, rather than to seem": a public scholarship blog that focuses on North Carolina politics and other random political ramblings regarding the politics of the U.S. South and and the United State...
www.oldnorthstatepolitics.com
November 14, 2024 at 5:08 PM