Jason Martens
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martens742.bsky.social
Jason Martens
@martens742.bsky.social
250 followers 120 following 310 posts
Longing for collective freedom. Also into photography, woodworking, cooking, and probably too many other hobbies. Day job is tech.
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martens742.bsky.social
I made pocket abstract art.
A screenshot from the Notes app. There is some text at the top with a measurement, then some random letters followed by a bunch of random lines drawn while the phone was in my pocket.
November 4, 2025 at 6:33 PM
martens742.bsky.social
I took this same shot! Makes a great phone lock screen.
A palm tree lit from the front with a partially cloudy sky in the background.
October 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM
martens742.bsky.social
Pick one.
October 20, 2025 at 5:07 AM
martens742.bsky.social
#NoKings New York
A portrait photo looking down 7th avenue in New York packed with people as far as can be seen. Photo of marchers in Times Square overflowing with people resisting the Trump administration.
October 18, 2025 at 6:07 PM
martens742.bsky.social
Just finished One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad. The clarity of his writing is so necessary in this time. Us white western people need his voice to clearly understand the double standards inherent in our politics and understanding of the world. Highly recommended.
The cover of the book, solid orange with the title at the bottom. There is a rough sketch of a missile falling on a small girl who has one hand stretched out as if to stop or to acknowledge the inevitability of her impending death.
October 15, 2025 at 4:16 PM
martens742.bsky.social
Reading One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
their expulsion or else extermination. Here, when we name the dead, when we name these dead in particular, it is customary to note the number of children obliterated, because the men are assumed to be terrorists and the women might be terrorists or at the very least go on to create them. Whatever mainstream Western liberalism is-and I have no useful definition of it beyond something at its core transactional, centered on the magnanimous, enlightened image of the self and the dissonant belief that empathizing with the plight of the faraway oppressed is compatible with benefiting from the systems that oppress them—it subscribes to this calculus. People go to see the president in the White House for what they know is only a meaningless photo op and yet, in the hopes of getting him to see, to do something, anything, they show him pictures of the mangled bodies of children. It doesn't work. There is no transaction to be had; these dead kids offer nothing in return.
October 10, 2025 at 5:01 AM
martens742.bsky.social
Check out this cute little guy. #Photography
Praying mantis on a smooth reflective surface.
September 26, 2025 at 11:24 PM
martens742.bsky.social
Love spending my birthday corking for the kidical mass!
Selfie of myself wearing a bright orange safety jacket for the kidical mass. Over 300 kids signed up to participate!
September 21, 2025 at 6:44 PM
martens742.bsky.social
Waiting for the train. #BelieveInFilm #Photography
Man standing on the opposite train platform at 86th Street subway station. There is a black void where the tracks are between one side and the other. Metal supports create framing, like looking into a department store window.
September 9, 2025 at 4:28 PM
martens742.bsky.social
Water Towers of New York. #BelieveInFilm #Photography
Panoramic shop of buildings in New York with what appears to be a field of water towers popping up from each rooftop.
September 4, 2025 at 3:02 PM
martens742.bsky.social
Just finished Unbuild Walls by Silky Shah. Appreciated the history lesson of immigration law in the US, the struggle to make progress, and the abolitionist framing for reformist reforms and unreformist reforms; those that increase the overall system of incarceration vs those that reduce it.
Cover of the book Unbuild Walls: Why immigrant justice needs abolition by Silky Shah
September 3, 2025 at 2:40 AM
martens742.bsky.social
Reposted with alt text.
Sargent: I would think so. It seems pretty clear to me. I think we should also highlight something else about this, which is that many of these news accounts that you're talking about rely on a certain type of quote from Democratic strategists, which almost invariably run something like, My party can't possibly engage in this debate. We're a bunch of total losers on this debate. We can't win this debate. And by the way, I'm very savvy. I'm here to tell you that anyone who says otherwise is completely delusional. But the thing about this is those Dem strategists are saying that stuff in order to get quoted in places like The New York Times. I don't care what anyone says. That is exactly what they're doing— and they know it and the reporters as well know it. Yet this is something that's never stated openly or acknowledged openly. We all know that's how it actually works. You ve been around a long time, Jamo. So have I. Isn't that how it works? Foser: It is very much how it works. And there's something inherently dishonest about the whole thing, right? Because reporters go looking for the specific strategists who they know will give them the quote they want to use. And so this idea that the reporter is just reflecting the broad consensus of Democratic strategists or whoever else they're representing through a source—a lot of times that's not really what's going on. They're picking the source who they know is going to give them the quote they want to use and the source is giving the journalists that quote the source knows that journalist wants to use because they like to see their name in the paper. That's how this works. And it's not honest and it's not a solid analysis. It's not serving anyone well except the strategists who like to see their name in the paper and the journalists who get the story that pushes the point of view that they want to push without really owning that it's their point of view. Sargent: What's so baffling to me about this as well is I thought for the longest time that editors believed that bucking conventional wisdom is a good thing, right? We're constantly told that this or that reporter or writer is a star because they take on conventional wisdom. And yet when it comes to certain things, the rush to parrot the conventional wisdom is almost comical. Why is it that when it comes to these particular topics, all of a sudden that desire to buck the CW just disappears? Foser: If there's anything they like more than bucking the CW, it's saying Democrats are losers and Donald Trump's invincible. That's just a core thing that a lot of journalists, I think, do believe and love to say. And not just journalists, too many, frankly, Democratic strategists. I don't think most of them, but as you noted, there's no shortage of people willing to say that at any given time. I will say one quote that I think maybe you're referring to that I came across in the last week in one of these stories, a quote from a Democratic strategist saying Democrats shouldn't fall into this trap on crime. And he explicitly made the analogy to immigration. He said, "This is just like immigration all over again." Well, it just so happens that a week ago I wrote a piece on this very same topic about immigration, and it was about a Chris Cillizza column from early June saying Democrats shouldn't fall under the trap on immigration because immigration is something Donald Trump's so popular on. Well, from the day Cillizza published that column to the day I wrote about it last week, Trump's net approval on immigration had dropped seven points. It was underwater. So that isn't actually what happened on immigration. That actually should be a lesson for people saying, Don't talk about crime. Run away from crime.
September 2, 2025 at 3:17 PM
martens742.bsky.social
Love the Cinestill halation. #BelieveInFilm #Photography
Photo of the World Trade Center. It’s shot at an angle so that the angled line on the side is vertical. The sun is glinting off the seam and glowing from the halation effect of the film.
September 1, 2025 at 5:14 AM
martens742.bsky.social
Peach galette just out of the oven bubbling and gooey
August 24, 2025 at 9:23 PM
martens742.bsky.social
I have some chaotic evil people in the house. Found it in the fridge like this.
A block of cheese, half wrapped in plastic and half with foil, but large parts still exposed.
August 9, 2025 at 7:34 PM
martens742.bsky.social
Love the quiet light on these flowers. #BelieveInFilm #Photography
Pink frilly flowers in patchy sunlight. There are bright spots and deep shadows giving strong contrast to the picture. I feel calm looking at it.
August 5, 2025 at 3:48 PM
martens742.bsky.social
Downtown Vancouver in the haze. #BelieveInFilm #Photography
A tall tower with three round sections and a wavy outline partially obscured by the fog. Other buildings farther in the distance disappear completely at the top. Black & white film.
August 4, 2025 at 4:42 PM
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Loved this texture in the water, and the shadow of the float plane. E100 slide film. #BelieveInFilm #Photography
Layered, wavy lines in the sea floor from the morning sun. There is a small shadow from the plane in the middle of the frame. The blue is super vibrant from the slide film.
August 3, 2025 at 4:42 PM
martens742.bsky.social
A fallen cedar tree in the Vancouver rainforest. Phoenix 1 in a Mamiya 7ii. It’s cropped to a pano so expand to enjoy #BelieveInFilm #Photography
The light is falling on land, with a faint reflection in the water below.
July 31, 2025 at 12:28 AM
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Vancouver in Ortho 80 and E100 - totally opposite experience and I love them both.
#BelieveInFilm #Photography
Float planes in the Vancouver harbor, blue tones are incredible. E100 film. Vancouver skyline on a cloudy day shot on Ilford Ortho 80.
July 30, 2025 at 3:11 AM
martens742.bsky.social
Santa Monica Pier. #Photography #BelieveInFilm
Photograph of the roller coaster on the pier with the city in the background.
July 1, 2025 at 3:10 PM
martens742.bsky.social
Amoeba Music has a great sign. #Photography #BelieveInFilm
Retro neon sign for Amoeba Music in LA. Shot on Ektar 100
June 25, 2025 at 8:13 AM
martens742.bsky.social
A little on the nose.
An extremely tattered and dirty US flag spotted at an anti-ICE vigil.
June 11, 2025 at 3:59 AM
martens742.bsky.social
As the flotilla is under attack, hundreds of people march from the Sather Gate at UC Berkeley for Palestine.
June 9, 2025 at 12:09 AM
martens742.bsky.social
Yippeee!
Me dressed as Luigi ands friend as Mario waiting for bay to breakers to start.
May 18, 2025 at 3:11 PM