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Jeremy Wattles @jtwattles.bsky.social · 23d

Thank you, Steph!

Jeremy Wattles @jtwattles.bsky.social · 23d

Today I have a piece up in the new issue Brevity @dintywmoore.bsky.social Thanks to all who have supported me in the last year as I’ve tried to recommit to writing.

Brevity / Dinty W. Moore @dintywmoore.bsky.social · 24d

Brevity literary magazine showcases essays by @stevenchurch.bsky.social, @marjiealonso.com. Richard Robbins, Toni Judnitch, Heather Shaw, @mollyakin.bsky.social , @jtwattles.bsky.social, Dana Wall, Heather Kindree Thomas, @suelick.bsky.social, Julie Hou, and Lori White.
brevitymag.com

Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction | Brevity: The journal devoted exclusively to the concise literary nonfiction.

brevitymag.com

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L @banalplay.bsky.social · Jul 29

This is so perfect. "Dead Center" and he's so far to the right that he's half off the cover

Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · Jul 29

I seriously do not know how this title got through even a single launch meeting.

the front cover of Joe Manchin's book Dead Center

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Lauren Ginsberg @laurenginsberg.bsky.social · Jul 24

This is very bad. Although entirely predictable. Once more the humanities are being cut back to prop up STEM and, increasingly, AI investment (including at the expense of bench science). In the past, cuts to humanities were promoted on two separate logic streams that do not hold true: /1

Holly Brewer @earlymodjustice.bsky.social · Jul 23

Dean at U of Chicago: “She also expressed concerns that the administration might be asking the Arts & Humanities Division to cut back to compensate for other divisions’ financial challenges, asking whether ‘our entire unit [is] being used to float other units facing cuts.”

UChicago Arts & Humanities Division to Restructure Amid “Historic Funding Pressures”

“The status quo is not an option,” Deborah Nelson, dean of the Division of the Arts & Humanities, wrote to division faculty on June 18.

chicagomaroon.com

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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · Jul 25

Oh yea we've got tons of evidence for this

Lauren Ginsberg @laurenginsberg.bsky.social · Jul 24

“Univ. of Illinois report shows that a large humanities department like English produces substantial net profit; units like engineering and agriculture run at a loss. The widely respected Delaware Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity shows the same pattern.” /7 thi.ucsc.edu/the-humaniti...

The Humanities Really Do Produce a Profit – The Humanities Institute

thi.ucsc.edu

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Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz · Jul 25

This is true! The most common thing I hear from regular liberal people is frustration at how they can see shit is fucked up but nobody is speaking for them (which is why they love AOC & Mamdani, ppl who ARE in their social media feeds actually fighting for things)

but from pop culture? crickets!

skáld @danglinghemmie.bsky.social · Jul 25

people are so desperate for a sign of cultural resistance they're posting south park clips

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · Jul 24

WU-TANG FOREVER 👐🏽

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Pat Inverted Vibe Curve Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · Jul 16

returning to this from me from early 2019, well before epstein met his, uh. demise, about how the secret horrible truth of things is that the horror has always been entirely out in the wide open all along therevealer.org/suffer-the-c...

an excerpt from the linked essay, which reads: "In June 2016, a California woman filed a lawsuit alleging that, in 1994, when she was 13 years old, Donald Trump raped her at a party at Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan. Trump and Epstein are longtime associates. “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years,” Trump told New York Magazine in 2002. “Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.” The woman remained nameless, but announced she was coming forward for a press conference on November 2, the day before the election. She then cancelled her appearance and withdrew her lawsuit, citing threats to her life. Trump (and Epstein) have denied her story.

Some twenty women have accused President Trump of sexual misconduct. Several women who participated in a Miss Teen USA pageant Trump owned have also told stories of his walking in to inspect them as they changed in their dressing rooms backstage. “Don’t worry, ladies,” one recalled him saying during an episode in 1997, three years after the alleged child rape at Epstein’s, “I’ve seen it all before.” The girls present in this episode included one as young as fifteen.

The dissonance is stupefying. There is no need for tinfoil-hat messageboard speculation or Lovecraftian True-Detective-style secret conspiracies. The exploitation and abuse of minors is right there, as cruel and ghoulish as you could imagine, out in the open. They are everywhere, overwhelming. Any given allegation will be debated endlessly and then forgotten, such that, while all of them may seem entirely plausible, no single one ever seems to rise to the level of being the one that will push opinion (or prosecution) over the edge. No one story seems like it can ever make a difference, precisely because there are so many of them."

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · Jul 18

This is what's called a limited hangout; they're releasing some grand jury evidence that is a tiny fraction of what they've got.

Semafor @semafor.com · Jul 18

Trump orders Epstein files released

www.semafor.com/article/07/1...

Trump orders Epstein files released

The move comes as more evidence of the US president’s alleged links to the deceased sex offender surfaced.

www.semafor.com

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · Jul 16

My god these guys are such spectacular morons

gizmodo.com/billionaires...

Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber who no longer works at the company, appeared on All-In to talk with hosts Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya about the future of technology. When the topic turned to AI, Kalanick discussed how he uses xAI’s Grok, which went haywire last week, praising Adolf Hitler and advocating for a second Holocaust against Jews.

“I’ll go down this thread with [Chat]GPT or Grok and I’ll start to get to the edge of what’s known in quantum physics and then I’m doing the equivalent of vibe coding, except it’s vibe physics,” Kalanick explained. “And we’re approaching what’s known. And I’m trying to poke and see if there’s breakthroughs to be had. And I’ve gotten pretty damn close to some interesting breakthroughs just doing that.”

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Antonio Delgado @delgadoforny.bsky.social · Jun 26

Last night, I endorsed @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social.

While we don’t agree on every issue, we share a deep commitment to tackling the affordability crisis that’s hurting New Yorkers.

Democrats should be able to agree that making New York more affordable is a fight worth taking on together.

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Jen Taub @jentaub.bsky.social · Jun 25

Wake up Democratic Party old guard establishment. This isn’t about New York City. This is the way the wind is blowing. Step aside for young people who this country will need over the next several decades long after you are gone. Enough with your egos and the big money interests.

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Mel Brooks @officialmelbrooks.bsky.social · Jun 12

I told you we’d be back

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Keith Edwards @keithedwards.bsky.social · May 31

Against all odds, Joni Ernst has made it worse

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · May 4

Is this bad? I'm no international shipping expert, but this sounds bad.

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · Apr 17

Bro really said "we have nothing to lose but our chains"

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Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · Apr 18

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.

Photo of Senator Chris Van Hollen with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

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Satan’s Niece @krissychula.bsky.social · Apr 6

This is high art

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Ingrid Rojas Contreras @ingridrojasc.bsky.social · Mar 16

I wrote about ghosts and hauntings

open.substack.com/pub/ingridro...

On Ghosts and Hauntings

That there could be a singular victim, or many victims—this is terrifying to the State.

open.substack.com

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Jeff Coltin @jccoltin.bsky.social · Mar 19

Telling mayoral race scene yesterday: Lander criticizes Cuomo, then reporters ask about Mamdani and he dodges. It’s the DREAM strategy in action. Or maybe DRAM, at this point.

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · Feb 24

This morning at Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HQ in DC as mandatory return to office began, this video played on loop for ~5 mins on screens throughout the building, per agency source.

Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs.

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Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · Feb 12

Tesla's stock is ridiculously overvalued, and even a modest consumer boycott could tank the company, which accounts for the majority of Elon Musk's wealth.
The divestment movement weakened apartheid South Africa. Let's do that again. slate.com/business/202...

Don’t Buy a Tesla. Sell Your Tesla. Refuse a Tesla at the Rental Counter. Yes—It Will Help.

Elon Musk’s car company is in a precarious spot.

slate.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Feb 11

in what meaningful way can we say that the constitution is in effect when an unelected and unaccountable billionaire is wielding state power to unilaterally cancel congressional appropriations?

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · Feb 11

Hearing that DOGE went into the Dept of Education today and shut down almost the entirety of the department's in-house research arm, Institute of Educational Sciences, cancelling contracts totally about $900m.

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David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · Feb 5

I wrote about the idiotic and anti-human vision that is currently replacing the republic. I will now go back to thinking about what a cleansing flood might look like. defector.com/billionaire-...

Billionaire Dipshit And His Strike Team Of Greasy Beavises Are Stripping The Wires From The Federal Government | Defector

The most important thing to know about both the chittering Renfields gnawing through the ductwork of the American administrative state and the billionaire sociopath they serve is that they don’t care....

defector.com

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Jeremy Wattles @jtwattles.bsky.social · Feb 6

Brilliant as always from David Roth. defector.com/billionaire-...

Billionaire Dipshit And His Strike Team Of Greasy Beavises Are Stripping The Wires From The Federal Government | Defector

The most important thing to know about both the chittering Renfields gnawing through the ductwork of the American administrative state and the billionaire sociopath they serve is that they don’t care....

defector.com

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