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Martyn Wendell Jones

@martynwendell.bsky.social

5.9K followers 1.9K following 1.6K posts

Senior associate editor, The Bulwark. American in Canada, writer. Dad newsletter: https://martynwendell.substack.com/

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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · Dec 18

I wrote about the time a UFO cultist brought me to the public meeting of his organization and then caused scandal by trying to accommodate me in a way that violated their esoteric norms: www.thebulwark.com/p/drone-hyst...

Drone Hysteria, Alien Cultists, and the One-Armed Prophet of Cosmic Enlightenment

My guided tour of the everyday impossible.

www.thebulwark.com

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 1h

get away from before the door

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Nora Reed (they/them ze/hir) @nora.zone · 5h

cry havoc and let slip the frogs of war

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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 10h

[non-ominous] And I will not forget it

Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 11h

sleeper hit (posted in the middle of the night)

Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 1d

Andreessen Horowitz? More like And Please, Sir, No More of This!

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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 1d

Andreessen Horowitz? More like And Please, Sir, No More of This!

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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 1d

I do always seem to have a memorable time

Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 1d

My volume was up too high, in the opinion of several people near me at the airport

Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 1d

I am sitting in a classic “liminal space” near a baggage carousel, and a guy just started playing an adjacent piano, with great feeling! His man bun is swaying. What a country

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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 1d

Just laughed out loud

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Craig Harrington @craigipedia.bsky.social · 1d

10/10 no notes

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 2d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 1d

At the airport earlier, a very tall and suave man verifying passports told me “please remove your hat… you look better without your hat…” People are saying all sorts of interesting things to me on this trip to AMERICA

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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 1d

Once again en route to that quaint, troubled land of AMERICA. Taxi driver for my trip to the airport remarked “you look like you are either going on vacation or hunting.” Perhaps I should expand my itinerary to include those things. As always, am open to further suggestions from savvy travelers

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Alex Shephard @alexshephard.bsky.social · 1d

Me and @markkrotov.bsky.social wrote about Laszlo Krasznahorkai and the Nobel Prize in Literature newrepublic.com/article/2015...

The Nobel Prize in Literature Is Boring Now

László Krasznahorkai, who was awarded the Prize on Thursday, is a brilliant novelist and consummate laureate. But has the Swedish Academy lost its sense of fun?

newrepublic.com

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Matt Pearce @mattdpearce.com · 1d

a warning for every newsletter writer going solo right now: you can literally win the Nobel Prize for literature and still desperately need an editor

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 2d

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 2d

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 2d

took the freedom of speech away? [putting on tricornered hat, picking up drum] like hell you did bro

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Trump: "We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the courts said you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they burn a flag it agitates and irritates crowds."

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grilled cheese 🧀 @grilldcheese.bsky.social · 2d

i quit pumpkin spice i'm on the patch

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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 2d

Shot, from @adriancarrasquillo.bsky.social's Huddled Masses newsletter today: www.thebulwark.com/p/ice-propag...

Chaser, from a Fox story about an upcoming "antifa roundtable" between Trump and the cabinet and several "independent journalists": www.foxnews.com/politics/beh...

Perhaps the clearest distillation of this strategy came during recent protests outside an ICE facility in Portland. While a tense scene played out on the ground, several incendiary right-wing influencers and media figures—Nick Sortor, Katie Daviscourt, Honey Badger Mom, and Julio Rosas—were stationed on the building’s rooftops. They were there not just to watch but to record as well—a bird’s-eye view of the scuffles breaking out below.

Clad in a black protective vest inscribed with the word PRESS, Rosas was filmed sipping what appeared to be an orange Jarritos while bantering with acquaintances. Hydration choices aside, these commentators had a clear purpose: advancing the story that ICE—and Trump—wants. When Daviscourt went on Fox News sporting a black eye that she said she received from Antifa protesters who hit her with a flagpole, she was doing just this, subtlety be damned. And when the right-wing website she works for tweeted out a slick compilation of Daviscourt’s footage depicting Portland as a war zone in which what Trump calls “paid terrorists” were antagonizing brave law enforcement officers, the tweet noted that the video had been produced and posted by the White House. The fact that they were part of a propaganda operation could not have been stated more explicitly.

Independent journalists who are slated to join the discussion, Fox News Digital learned, include Cam Higby, Jonathon Choe, Andy Ngo, Katie Daviscourt, James Klug, Savannah Hernandez, Nick Shirley, Brandi Kruse and Julio Rojas.

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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 2d

the "gentleman's viral"—I haven't heard this expression before, but gosh, I know just what it means

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 3d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 3d

As alarmed as people may be, they aren't alarmed enough. Trump just escalated this crisis from a fight between the federal government and a state, to a situation where one state is deploying armed forces to impose its will on another state. www.thebulwark.com/p/emergency-...

Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next

We aren’t at the worst-case scenario yet. But if you squint, you can see it looming out there, just over the horizon.

www.thebulwark.com

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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 3d

NEW: "I don’t like sending out 'emergency' newsletters, but I’ve had my eye on the situation in Chicago all day....This moment has elevated the crisis so that it is no longer just a conflict between the federal government and a state, but between two states."
www.thebulwark.com/p/emergency-...

Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next

We aren’t at the worst-case scenario yet. But if you squint, you can see it looming out there, just over the horizon.

www.thebulwark.com

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 3d

under his very pillow rush herds of walruses and whales

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 4d

I've posted this picture before but I do find it interesting that the police here arresting Carlo Gambino, at the time one of the most dangerous men in America with dozens of killers at his command, didn't feel the need to cover their faces because they are not ashamed of their work

Two men in long coats and uncovered faces escort a smirking Carlo Gambino, who wears a hat

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Ryan Teague Beckwith @ryanbeckwith.bsky.social · 4d

Editor in chief, city editor, features editor

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