David Martin
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bydavidmartin.bsky.social
David Martin
@bydavidmartin.bsky.social
360 followers 730 following 200 posts
Investigator. The occasional byline.
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bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Your classmates were right, my guy
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u...
Excerpt of New York Times story: Mr. Hendrix dates his political awakening to Mr. Trump’s 2016 election, when he was a sophomore at Topeka High School. He had never been interested in politics, or much noticed the views of his liberal father, a registered Democrat. And when students walked out, protesting Mr. Trump’s win, he followed along — happy to get out of class. Then he started looking into what students were saying. “It was very much just, ‘He’s a racist, his policies are racist,’” he said. “It all seemed like an overstatement.”
December 6, 2025 at 1:35 AM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Ohio State football Woody Hayes wearing shortsleeves as snow falls.
November 27, 2025 at 7:37 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
David Brooks: Why are Democrats pursuing something that's wrong-footing the leader of the opposite party and dividing his coalition?

Question answers itself, brother.
What I don’t understand is why some Democrats are hopping on this bandwagon. They may believe that the Epstein file release will somehow hurt Trump.
November 22, 2025 at 3:02 AM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Quite a kicker to this article on Lawrence Summers' friendship with Epstein www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
November 17, 2025 at 2:30 AM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Blending, like he's making a frappe
The New York Times headline Blending Family and Governance, Trump Organization Talks Real Estate Deal With Saudis
November 16, 2025 at 3:11 AM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Skimmed this 1998 book, which hasn't aged well. As we've seen both with W and Trump, white rural people get pretty chill about the federal governmet's power once a Republican is in the White House.
A cover of the book Harvest of Rage: Why Oklahoma City Is the Only Beginning by Joel Dyer.
November 15, 2025 at 10:40 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
This @karltaro.bsky.social profile of Paul Tagliabue is very good vault.si.com/vault/2006/0...
November 9, 2025 at 8:29 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
This piece is worthwhile but Ezra Klein papers over the fact that Demcorats started losing elections (-63 in House, -6 in Senate in 2010) *before* its shift to the left. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/o...
November 2, 2025 at 11:33 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Republican voters wanted something meaner and dumber—and Roger Marshall was happy to give it to 'em wapo.st/4hwqlSE
October 30, 2025 at 10:04 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
I watched the 1963 film version of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House after reading the book. I'm not going to watch the lowly rated 1999 version but I have to say these casting choices made sense!
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor and Owen Wilson in a still image from The Haunting
October 18, 2025 at 5:57 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
A Big Star fan built today's Connections
October 10, 2025 at 11:42 AM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Great reporting in this story about a memoirist who very likely took a classmate's trauma as her own.

After platforming Dr. Oz, Jenny McCarthy and others, you'd think Oprah would hire someone with a bullshit detector she clearly lacks.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/n...
September 30, 2025 at 10:01 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
I went down a 1987 Ryder Cup rabbit hole. Paul Azinger, No. 2 on that year's money list, was ineligible to play for the U.S. side because of a continuing education requirement!
September 25, 2025 at 12:28 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Patricia Lockwood on her favorite juvenile fiction www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/b...
I really cherish those problem books from the '70s and '80s, where it's like you've got scoliosis, or your friend ran you over with their car and you can't tell anyone, or you're psychic and have purple eyes and it's too much responsibility. "Steffie Can't Come Out to Play" is the probable apotheosis of these. A teen runaway, in gritty '70s New York, falls into the clutches of an evil pimp named Favor who only eats steak. His clothes are described in incredible detail. She escapes eventually, but not before pretty much all of her family has died.
September 23, 2025 at 11:09 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Farmers who rely on migrant labor and voted for Trump is not a sympathetic group, I must say www.politico.com/news/2025/09...
September 15, 2025 at 11:26 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox looks like sportswriter Steve Rushin
September 13, 2025 at 1:10 AM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Good snapshot overall, but this Times story overstates Rep. Cleaver's appeal. He's been a replacement-level D in recent elections. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/u...
September 13, 2025 at 1:06 AM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Remember when Samuel Alito wrote this in Dobbs? Well, Missouri is rewriting the rules so conservative rural voters can veto popular proposals. www.kansascity.com/news/politic...
Text from the Dobbs decision. The passage "Women are not without electoral or political power" is highlighted.
September 4, 2025 at 11:07 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
I found this convincing. The solution — mollify voters who hold pretty right-wing views about crime and immigration or they'll put an authoritarian in power — sucks though.

www.slowboring.com/p/a-boring-t...
I do not personally favor longer prison sentences, reducing the volume of immigration, or scolding mothers for working too much. At the same time, were a government to come into office that cut immigration, increased prison sentences, and said vaguely encouraging things about tradwives, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. In politics, sometimes you win the argument and sometimes you lose. But if deeply illiberal people come to power and trash the basic institutions of Western democracies, that’s not just something we come back from.
September 4, 2025 at 10:56 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Some Guys I Remember: Players selected in the 20th round of a fantasy league I was in in 2010
defector.com/defector-and...
September 2, 2025 at 11:55 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is above average. Plus, Diana Rigg!
Photo of George Lazenby and Diana Rigg
September 1, 2025 at 1:54 AM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
Sobering take by @brianbeutler.bsky.social‬ on how hard it is to pull conservative-leaning voters away from the GOP
People think of Barack Obama’s 2008 election as a modern landslide, but to me it was also illustrative of this imbalance. George W. Bush left office with an approval rating below 30 percent; the economy was headed for depression; his Republican successor, John McCain, was well known as a war hawk, running to lead a war-weary nation. Obama was viewed favorably upon his inauguration by almost 80 percent of the country. Yet McCain still racked up almost 46 percent of the vote.
August 30, 2025 at 1:15 AM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
In the mid '90s I did a silly bit for an alternative paper about life in Columbus imitating The Simpsons. Wexner/Mr. Burns similarities noted.
August 25, 2025 at 11:22 PM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
David Brooks did this in his most recent column. He blamed the left for the rise of right-wing nihilism.
August 25, 2025 at 2:16 AM
bydavidmartin.bsky.social
I got irritated when I saw this on a TV at the gym this morning
August 24, 2025 at 6:44 PM