John Wenz
johnwenz.bsky.social
John Wenz
@johnwenz.bsky.social
Journalism dropout
Continuously tech fails to think … what if we don’t want this?
January 20, 2026 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
Alright, here's the official I'm looking for work thread. After four years at Inverse, taking the lead on gaming coverage, I'm now completely open to work. I've been a reporter, editor, podcast host, and much more. If you want to see what I can bring to the table, here's some of my best from Inverse
January 19, 2026 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
per the story, the “Abolish ICE is bad” dude is also a “former Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection official”
The author of a controversial memo from centrist think tank Searchlight telling Democrats to abandon the slogan “Abolish ICE” is a senior advisor for WestExec, a D.C. shadow lobbyist for corporations in the defense, surveillance, and immigration enforcement industries.
prospect.org/2026/01/19/a...
Author of ‘Don’t Say Abolish ICE’ Memo Is a Corporate Consultant - The American Prospect
Blas Nuñez-Neto is a senior adviser to WestExec, a shadow lobbyist for defense and tech firms.
prospect.org
January 19, 2026 at 2:58 PM
An evergreen sentiment, beyond the Nobel Prize. He truly loathes Obama and the legacy of Obama, for both racist reasons and personal ones. (Once got made fun of by Obama in public which is enough if you have skin the width of tracing paper.)
fwiw i think his obsession with the nobel prize is entirely about obama getting it (setting aside whether or not obama ought to have received it)
"Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
January 19, 2026 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
This is why anyone employed currently by ICE or applied to ICE in the last year and beyond should be required to register in a public database and go door to door to tell neighbors they were employed by ICE during the Trump years. Make them social pariahs the rest of their pathetic lives.
Thanks. We have folks in our community giving vulnerable students rides to school, and a teacher shared that they were putting small stuffed animals on their dashboards to help kids identify safe cars. ICE picked up on it and started doing the same. Horrifying.
January 19, 2026 at 4:42 AM
They truly do not know what city they’re about to fuck with.
I've heard rumors that Philadelphia is next for the ICE invasion after Minneapolis.
Maybe I'm wrong, but
1) More than 11% of all ICE agents are in Minneapolis, and they've utterly failed to pacify the city.
2) Philly is 5x the size of Minneapolis.
3) "Minnesota nice" is a thing. We don't have that.
January 19, 2026 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by John Wenz
Is Pope Leo the first pope to potentially have had Casey's breakfast pizza or Dunkin' Donuts?
January 18, 2026 at 11:43 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
unrelated to anything but in like fuckin cub scouts they taught us to not wear jeans if you’re going into a cold situation with snow and/or water so if you’re wearing tactical body armor and wranglers in the upper midwest during winter you’re trained worse than a fourth grader
January 18, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
The fact that Gavin Newsom is even talking to the likes of Shapiro is a sign that he’s a non-starter. I’ve never forgotten how Shapiro said that Trayvon Martin deserved to die. Not fucking ever.
Ben Shapiro: "Israel did not commit a genocide in Gaza"
Gavin Newsom: "I agree with you."
January 17, 2026 at 9:06 PM
Thinnest of thin skins over there
"We've seen over a thousand percent increase in assaults on ICE officers, 8,000 verbal assaults on them...."
January 18, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
Two of the charges at Nuremberg were "participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace" and "planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace."
Bessent on Greenland: "Peace through strength. Make it part of the US and there will not be a conflict because the US right now, we're the hottest country in the world, we're the strongest country in the world. Europeans project weakness. The US projects strength."
January 18, 2026 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
ICE seems to get completely flummoxed when they’re being yelled at by white men over 35. They kind of put their heads down and shuffle their feet. It’s like their kryptonite.
January 17, 2026 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
the wildest thing is right-wingers acting like minnesotans in videos must be outside agitators when we can all hear their accents. i don't think i could do that accent convincingly if i spent a year practicing. and neither would i wish to. have you heard that shit? craziest american accent
January 16, 2026 at 4:57 AM
Every cut to Inverse still hurts. I dodged a layoff by a couple months, tops. I’m not sure BDG ever knew quite what to do with it, but everyone I worked with was smart, funny, and driven. I loved my team. I still talk to old coworkers from there regularly.

The layoff of the gaming team sucks.
January 16, 2026 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
Please also keep in mind @shannonliao.bsky.social @robinbombus.bsky.social and @theloniusly.bsky.social who are all equally incredible writers and creators. It was nothing but a joy to work with them, in every way.
January 16, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
Inverse's Gaming section is being shut down as the company "divests" from gaming content. I'm out of a job along with my wonderful co-writers. I've put my heart and soul into this job for four years. Gonna need to take time to process, but I'm now completely open for work - and boy do I need it.
January 16, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Can’t endorse Robin enough. Smart, capable, and kind. If your team has anything open, please consider her for it.
Inverse has decided to "divest from gaming content" so I'm out of a job again!
This is almost certainly the end of my career in games media, and probably the end of my writing career. I'd love for that not to be the case, so I'd appreciate any leads but I'm honestly not hopeful for obvious reasons♥️
January 16, 2026 at 3:56 PM
Gavin Newsom stop courting weird far-right podcast challenge. (Difficulty level should be low but he’s a scumbag.)
Only 15 days in and we have a strong contender for most embarrassing headline of the year.

Ben. Shapiro. The guy who can't get his wife wet. The guy who needs an old person to open the pickle jar for him.
January 16, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
January 15, 2026 at 8:24 PM
I don’t necessarily miss science journalism a ton, I think burnout related, but there are definitely some old colleagues with enough zest in what they write that it at least puts a little spark back.
January 15, 2026 at 4:10 PM
Jim Pillen called the cops because a state senator took down a couple posters. Bringing the “THAT neighbor” theory of governance I guess. nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/nebra...
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen seeks probe of State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh’s PragerU art incident • Nebraska Examiner
Cavanaugh removed and later returned part of a Nebraska Capitol display on American history from conservative nonprofit PragerU.
nebraskaexaminer.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by John Wenz
in yet another world first we will be integrating a child pornography website into our military. wow. impressive
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the integration of Elon Musk's xAI platform, Grok, into military networks as part of a new "AI acceleration strategy" during a visit to SpaceX.
January 13, 2026 at 7:20 AM
Reposted by John Wenz
Democrats need to realize ICE isn’t just—or even primarily—a mass deportation force.

ICE is also Trump’s most loyal internal security force which will be used to attack regime opponents and try to steal the election. They should defund his authoritarian capabilities.
January 12, 2026 at 4:29 PM
They know exactly what they’re doing. Disavow yourselves of any belief that these aren’t just, in many cases, people who took the job because of the violence they could inflict with impunity. Start readying instead, if you’re ever useful enough to get the seats of power back, abolishing ICE.
Democrats officially going all in on the mealy mouthed “ICE needs training” narrative.

No. ABOLISH ICE.
WARNER: It used to take 5 to 6 months to get trained. They've now lowered the training period to 47 days. Why 47 days? Because Donald Trump's the 47th president. Tell me that's a rational approach

KERNEN: I'm not taking that bait

WARNER: Joe! You can't pick your facts
January 13, 2026 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by John Wenz
Sanders: I am very worried that ICE is becoming a domestic army for Trump, and this goes way beyond the issue of immigration. It goes to the movement of this country toward authoritarianism and fear.
January 12, 2026 at 9:53 PM