Michael Messner
@mam52.bsky.social
sociologist, author of books on gender and sports, men and feminism, gender-based violence, war and peace. New book examines 120 years of high school yearbooks: THE HIGH SCHOOL: SPORTS, SPIRIT, AND CITIZENS, 1903-2024. https://www.thehighschoolbook.com/
Trump's is absorbing well-deserved criticism for bragging about "only" 18 deaths in his Iran war so far. Typically, he is ignoring the thousands of Iranians, including 121 school girls, that the U.S. and Israel have killed. Civilian war casualties should never be rendered invisible.
theconversation.com/more-testost...
More testosterone won’t make a better soldier or a tougher man – aggression and strength drive T levels, not the other way around
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is requiring service members to screen for low testosterone levels. Ironically, the military lifestyle itself is more likely to lower T levels.
theconversation.com
A new piece I co-authored with Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo: Father's Day in ICE detention. sourcenm.com/2026/06/17/p...
Pride and Pain: Father’s Day in ICE detention in New Mexico • Source New Mexico
Two volunteers discuss the men they encountered being held by ICE at Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico.
sourcenm.com
I hadn't imagined when I wrote this piece three months ago that Trump would be forced to remove his name from the Kennedy Center. I hope the momentum continues with other places he has scrawled his moniker publicly, like a spoiled bully.
Michael Messner@mam52.bsky.social · 5mo agoMy 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...
Here is a piece I co-authored with sociologist Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, based on our conversations with detained men in a New Mexico ICE detention center. www.zocalopublicsquare.org/this-is-life...
This Is Life in ICE Detention | Essay
Uncertainty. Fear. Boredom. Time in These Facilities Is Worse Than Prison
zocalopublicsquare.org
I wrote about recent harmful actions by Schumer, Spanberger, Polis, and Sherrill, as well as how politicians who oppose the administration might think about their mission right now.
When leaders don't lead
What should Democrats be doing? Not this.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
It's an excellent time to make a contribution to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Joyce White Vance@joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 3mo agoI’ve had time to study DOJ’s indictment of the SPLC now & it only gets more disturbing. A weak indictment, like the now-dismissed one against Comey & the one a grand jury declined to indict against members of Congress. I point out the likely ulterior motive: joycevance.substack.com/p/whats-wron...
Targeting civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure has become the new norm in Israeli and U.S. wars in the Middle East. These used to be called war crimes. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
Is this what war looks like now? | Mohamad Bazzi
Before the war on Gaza, the seed of Israel’s strategy of wholesale destruction was planted in a 2006 war on Lebanon. Today, the playbook repeats itself
theguardian.com
Soon, High school students will soon take part in a long tradition in American education: receiving yearbooks at the end of the school year. As a sociologist, I have studied high school yearbooks as time capsules for understanding our past. theconversation.com/high-school-...
High school yearbooks focus on the fun students had, obscuring the pain people also experienced
A review of nearly 100 years of high school yearbooks from Salinas High School in California showcases a nostalgic, not always accurate, version of high school.
theconversation.com
Democrats dream that winning the midterms will bend the arc of history back toward justice. But that won't be enough. Social movements must lift, educate, and pressure politicians before, during, and after elections. My piece in the Santa Fe New Mexican: www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_v...
Activists must lift timid Democratic leaders
It’s spring, and Democrats are exulting over the prospect of recapturing the House in November. Enthused optimists conjure scenarios where Democrats flip the Senate. Maybe, some imagine, this could ev...
santafenewmexican.com
and consider also, on another side of the ledger, all of the cuts to health, food assistance, clean energy, education, US AID. This is a massive shift of resources from human needs to war.
Steve Rattner@steverattner.bsky.social · 4mo agoTrump’s huge military budget would be the largest in American history—more than WWII. @morningjoe-msnow.bsky.social
A big part of the authoritarian playbook is war. War takes over the news. War blots out criticism. War divides a nation’s people, subjecting those against it to being called unpatriotic. War grants leaders all sorts of emergency powers. War consumes everything else. We mustn’t let this war do so.
war's horrible impact on children. Good to see someone focusing on something other than gas prices. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
Death, displacement and military duties: children plunged into crisis by Middle East war
The US-Israeli war will have a lifelong impact on millions of children across the Middle East
theguardian.com
I wrote about what No Kings is accomplishing. Forming a nationwide network in a vast stand against Trump is critical at this point, because he represents a different kind of challenge. Meanwhile, millions of No Kings protesters are taking other actions close to home—and say they're ready to do more.
Does "No Kings" matter?
Protesters understand the assignment. They're showing up to save democracy.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
Important new book by historian Alice Echols, on the promise and perils of multi-racial coalition-building: www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...
Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Ra…
Black Power, White Heat is a major historical reinterpr…
goodreads.com
I was proud to be among the No Kings throngs in Santa Fe, NM, and it's great to see images and stories from small towns and cities in the U.S. and around the world.
Luca Migo@victinibcn.bsky.social · 4mo ago#NoKings Day was a success, thank you to all the protesters who came to save democracy and the activists who worked hard to make it happen.
Women's History Month, March Madness--check out my short video on women high school coaches: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN4c...
"The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024" ("Women Coaches")
YouTube video by Rutgers University Press
youtube.com
The US-Israel war on Iran is a disaster for the climate, draining the global carbon budget faster than 84 countries combined. The conflict released 5m tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in just 14 days. “Every missile strike is another downpayment on a hotter, more unstable planet." No pay wall.
5m tonnes of CO2 emitted in just 14 days of US war on Iran, analysis finds
Exclusive: War in the Middle East is draining the global carbon budget faster than 84 countries combined
theguardian.com
and of course the human cost of death and injury, especially to civilians, and the environmental destruction of this war are incalculable.
on the need for renewed progressive coalition politics. enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/art...
War, injustice and a coalition in the making
War, injustice and a coalition in the making
enewspaper.latimes.com
The 2026 National Science Foundation budget is $8.75 Billion.
First 6 Days of Iran War Cost U.S. $11.3 Billion, Pentagon Says
nytimes.com
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...
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,
santafenewmexican.com
This is not "collateral damage." It is always civilians who suffer the most when nation states wage war. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
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
theguardian.com
"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...
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
theguardian.com
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...
"The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024" ("John Steinbeck")
YouTube video by Rutgers University Press
youtube.com
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.
