Category Archives: Uncategorized

Academic boycott of Israel and the American Sociological Association

I don’t usually write about professional matters here, but there are all kinds of issues about protest and organizations and influence at play here. It may be of interest to Politicsoutdoors readers. Background: So, a group called Sociologists for Palestine … Continue reading

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One battle after another (not the movie!)

War dominates our screens, our politics, and our brains. For a while, it crowds out almost everything else. And, more than virtually any other issue, war polarizes. For these reasons and others, presidents in political trouble often turn their gaze … Continue reading

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The last Cesar Chavez Day (2026)

Thanks to the California state legislature, the last Cesar Chavez Day was in 2025. March 31 will mark the holiday this year, renamed Farmworkers Day. Given the revelations of the past few days, this is a necessary move. The Farmworkers’ … Continue reading

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Twin Cities Redux: What a Resistance win looks like

ICE is retreating from Minneapolis, but this time it’s not because of climate change. Instead, it’s a victory–albeit a very costly one–for the resistance to the Trump Administration and its migration policies. Like virtually all social movement victories, this one … Continue reading

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More songs from Minneapolis

I last wrote about the Springsteen song about ICE in Minneapolis. My hunch is that such songs provide the first bit of political education that lots of people get. Certainly, the protest songs of earlier eras provided the first bit … Continue reading

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Protest songs, poetry, and political influence

Long ago, I was seduced by Shelley’s Defense of Poetry, which concluded with a bold claim: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” At some point, I became skeptical of that notion, and came to think that poets were … Continue reading

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Repression in Minneapolis backfires (2)

Repression is risky for everyone. It works for authorities when most opponents are deterred from taking visible action. But repression can also provoke greater resistance and undermine support for the repressive agents. Repression polarizes, and how well it works depends … Continue reading

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Repression backfires in Minneapolis (1)

Federal agents seem determined to kill anti-deportation protesters, at least enough of them to kill the resistance. It’s not working–at least not yet. Minnesotans are fighting back. Who guessed that Minneapolis, Minnesota would become the front line of the civil … Continue reading

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Martin Luther King Day 2026 (repost plus)

Commemoration is very much a salient issue at the moment. Donald Trump, president, is rewriting the history of the Capitol Hill invasion and American history more broadly. It’s no surprise that the most conspicuous efforts (e.g., the simultaneously Disneyfied and … Continue reading

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New nuclear tests are a political test

Donald Trump announced that the United States would start testing its nuclear arsenal again–after foregoing nuclear weapons testing since 1992, when the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union fell apart. In doing so, he effectively announced a political challenge … Continue reading

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