Tess Wise

Legality and Legitimacy in American Military Interventions Debates about the sources of presidential power in wartime often turn on constitutional separation of powers questions about where executive authority ends and legislative authority begins. Such lega...

Answering my own question: I added Sarah Kreps' excellent article, "Legality and Legitimacy in American Military Interventions" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Logo of JREP with the hashtag OpenAccess on a grey background dotted with red circles.

#OpenAccess from @journalrep.bsky.social -

Critical Race Theories and the Political Economy of Systemic Racism - https://cup.org/4sqEXHI

- @tesswise.bsky.social

#FirstView

Alrighty fellow Intro to American professors. What are we adding to the syllabus this semester?

Opinion | A Nazi Tattoo Exposes Democrats’ Greatest Weakness

Tressie McMillan Cottom nails it:

"There was not a college degree or a political donor among them, and yet, somehow, actual poor people figured out how to handle racist iconography without scapegoating minorities or making excuses for a white man’s mistakes."

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...

Living With Parakeets and Other Migrants Amsterdam hosts growing populations of non-native parakeets. What do shifting attitudes toward these birds reveal about humans?

This is the best article I've read about the Amsterdam parakeets, which captured my wonder when I saw them during @sasemeeting.bsky.social's Amsterdam conference in 2022! www.sapiens.org/culture/amst...

Ahhhh! This is so true @profsorelle.bsky.social !!! <3 Love our community. We gotta have an NC conference sometime soon.

Many of my students from my Politics of Consumer Finance class opted to do podcasts for their final projects. I cannot express how fun it is to hear my students have interesting, informed, thoughtful conversations about what they learned in our class! Highly recommend!

Lower than usual enrollment for my Harvard Summer School course "Race and U.S. Politics." Current enrollment is also predominantly grad students (vs. high school & college). I wonder if students are worried about having a class about race on their transcript...

Harvard professor offers a grim assessment of American democracy under Trump Steven Levitsky studies how healthy democracies can slip into authoritarianism. He says the Trump administration has already done grave damage: "We are no longer living in a democratic regime."

Levitsky on how American democracy dies

www.npr.org/2025/04/22/n...

Tricia McLaughlin & @TriciaOhio 0... The narrative being pushed about Jose Hermosillo is false. On April 8, Hermosillo approached Border Patrol in Tucson and stated he had entered the U.S. illegally through Nogales. He said he wanted to turn himself in and completed a sworn statement identifying as a Mexican citizen who had entered unlawfully. He was processed and appeared in court on April 11. Afterward, he was held by the U.S. Marshals in Florence, AZ. A few days later, his family presented documents showing U.S. citizenship. The charges were dismissed, and he was released to his family. This arrest was the direct result of Hermosillo's own actions and statements.

In an interview with Popular Information, his first with any media outlet, Hermosillo said DHS'. 's account was false. According to Hermosillo, he was visiting his girlfriend's family in Tucson from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Several hours before his arrest, Hermosillo was transported to a hospital in Tucson by ambulance after suffering from a seizure. He has a New Mexico state ID, but did not take it with him during the medical emergency. After being released from the hospital following treatment, Hermosillo did not know how to return to where he was staying. He approached the Border Patrol officer because he was looking for someone to help him. "I saw a car, and I askled] him for help," Hermosillo said. He told the officer that he was staying in Tucson.

"You" re not from here. Do you have your papers?" the officer said, according to Hermosillo. When the officer asked where he was from, Hermosillo said he told the officer, "New Mexico." The officer then accused Hermosillo of lying. "Don't make me lout] like [I'm] stupid," the officer said. "I know you're from Mexico." After that, Hermosillo said, he was arrested. Hermosillo said that he never told the officer that he was born in Mexico, was a citizen of Mexico, or entered the country illegally. And he would not have said those things because they are not true. He signed the transcript released by DHS because the officer ordered him to "sign everything." But Hermosillo did not read it, because he cannot read. According to Hermosillo's girlfriend, Grace Hernandez, Hermosillo has learning disabilities and can only write his name. Hermosillo said he did not graduate from high school and dropped out after the 10th grade.

The officer also signed the document, which said Hermosillo "read" the document or had it read to him. But Hermosillo said no one read him the document. Other documents created by the officer have inaccuracies. For example, the criminal complaint says that Hermosillo was detained "at or near Nogales, Arizona." But Hermosillo was detained in Tuscon, which is more than 70 miles from Nogales. John Mennell, a spokesperson for the U.S. Border Patrol, said that it was an "unintentional" error. Hermosillo said he was detained with about 15 other men in a cell at the Florence Correctional Center. He was served only cold food. He said he contracted the flu because "they have it cold in there and everybody's getting sick." Hermosillo said he requested medicine but was not provided with any.

A US citizen with a learning disability who has just suffered a medical emergency asks a CBP officer for directions outside the emergency room. He ends up detained in an icebox for ten days and has the assistant secretary of DHS lying about him to the public at large. popular.info/p/us-citizen...

A Coastal New England Town’s ‘Ornery’ Vandal: A Woodpecker More than 20 vehicles in a town on Cape Ann, Mass., have been damaged by a woodpecker in mating season. “You still see him out here,” one resident said. “Peck, peck, peck, peck.”

I'd be annoyed if it were my car, but I am definitely rooting for the woodpecker! www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/u...

Feeling proud of my alma mater today www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Enos & Levitsky: “If Columbia or another university confronts the administration on its own, it will lose. If America’s nearly 6,000 universities and colleges launch a campaign in defense of higher education, odds are that Trump will lose.”

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Building adventure At East Campus, ambitious construction projects draw first-year students to the dorm each fall.

Super cool that there is an article about East campus dorm rush activities at MIT! This was one of my favorite parts of living at EC. It also contains an interview with absolute legend Mark Feldmeier! www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/23/1...

First day of classes in the books! 🎉 This semester, I’m teaching Politics of Consumer Finance and Race in America. I use live syllabi, so I’d love your input—are there any standout pieces you’ve read on these topics that my undergrads and I should explore this semester?

Particularly the counties along the TX southern border

I don’t know how to create a quantitative measure of this but it basically happens all the time now, a geographically efficient legislature (usually elected by a minority of state electorate) takes power away from an incoming governor (by definition elected by a majority of state electorate)

From the MapPorn community on Reddit: How every county voted over the last 3 elections Explore this post and more from the MapPorn community

Found this interesting!
www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/co...

Strip Clubs, Lewd Photos and a Boozy Hotel: The Toxic Atmosphere at Bank Regulator FDIC Employees say sexual harassment, misogyny pervade federal agency tasked with ensuring stability of nation’s banks, driving women to leave

www.wsj.com/us-news/fdic... hmmm better regulation might also require better regulators…

I have yet to do an oral exam, but I meet with 56 students one on one twice each semester. A way for students to book their own appointments, such that they just show up on your calendar during designated spots, cuts down the scheduling labor. I use calendly, but I’ve heard there are other methods.

Chief lobbyist for Independent Community Bankers of America, saying banks should “litigate public policy” because regulators asking for race and location data for loans is an “extraordinary” demand makes me pretty sure that data would show that the banks are racist AF…https://shorturl.at/dhwPW

What a read!!!!

North Carolina Republicans Approve House Map That Flips at Least Three Seats The gerrymandered congressional map, made possible by a new G.O.P. majority on the state Supreme Court, ensures Republican dominance in a closely divided state.

Republicans in North Carolina approved a heavily gerrymandered congressional map on Wednesday that is likely to knock out about half of the Democrats representing the state in the House of Representatives, ensuring GOP dominance in a closely divided state.

The year is 2323. In the 267th Congress (the 50th Congress of the New Union of American Republics), the neo-Republican Party dutifully chooses and then executes its nominee for Speaker of the House. This ritual has been held each October for a 100 years to mark the beginning of a new session.

Cite the other paper and keep going! Is it actually the *exact same*? Even if it is, this might mean that interest is growing around your topic, not that you shouldn't proceed!