Whitney Manzo

This sure seems more like the tyranny the Constitution is supposed to protect against than forgiving student loans.

Visit of the Prime Minister of Denmark 22nd Jawary 2026 We'll get by with a little help from our friends

Sky News: Danish PM Mette Freideriksen’s note in the visitors book when she visited UK today

One of the most lopsided results you'll ever see in a poll, from our weekend Washington Post poll www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

"Captain Gains" on Capitol Hill Shang-Jin Wei & Yifan Zhou WORKING PAPER 34524 DOI 10.3386/w34524 ISSUE DATE November 2025 Using transaction-level data on US congressional stock trades, we find that lawmakers who later ascend to leadership positions perform similarly to matched peers beforehand but outperform them by 47 percentage points annually after ascension. Leaders' superior performance arises through two mechanisms. The political influence channel is reflected in higher returns when their party controls the chamber, sales of stocks preceding regulatory actions, and purchase of stocks whose firms receiving more government contracts and favorable party support on bills. The corporate access channel is reflected in stock trades that predict subsequent corporate news and greater returns on donor-owned or home-state firms.

令 1 1 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 Year Figure 2: Estimated dynamic quasi-difference-in-differences coefficient, di, of equation(3), with vertical dashed lines representing 90 percent confidence intervals. The point estimate of the year in which the lawmaker became a congressional leader (Year 0) is normalized to zero. BHAR over the 250 days following each trade is the dependent variable and calculated using the Fama-French five-factor plus momentum as the benchmark model.

After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts

www.nber.org/papers/w34524

via @florianederer.bsky.social

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.

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.
🧪🧬🧫

This is obscene.

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.

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.

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⤵️

".. 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."

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.

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"

“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.

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.”

My favorite thing is going to "Mexican" restaurants in European countries. If I see it, I'm going. It's always an adventure

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.

I suppose it's nice that my class on the Civil Rights Movement has current material to discuss? 🫠

Mine is the years of walking into what I suspect is the same hotel chain to be greeted by a TV welcoming "Mr. Manzo"

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.

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.

I was in London for July 2019 and for July 2024, and you really can tell a difference. The labor shortage is no joke.

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...

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

Kidz bop choices are so strange sometimes! I would love a deep dive into that

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

@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