Jeff Balboni

@jbalboni.bsky.social

Regular human software engineer. Western Mass

The slope isn't slippery; the frog isn't gradually getting boiled. Within its first hundred days the Trump administration has openly asserted the right/ power to seize and imprison anyone— including political dissidents, including citizens— and deprive them of any legal recourse at all. 5/

It's hard to overstate how much my understanding of politics was shaped by Kevin Drum's blog during the Bush and Obama administrations. I got occasionally frustrated with some of his opinions over the years, but he's always been the standard in my mind of thoughtful, nuanced political writing.

Health Update - Kevin Drum

With a heavy heart, I have to tell you that after a long battle with cancer my husband Kevin Drum passed away on Friday, March 7, 2025. No public memorial services are planned. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the charity or political cause of your choice. A Facebook page, 'In Memory of Kevin Drum', has been created as…

jabberwocking.com

you’re fired. wait you’re rehired. email us a list of things you’ve done today wait forget it you’re fired again. come back your job was important. you’re fired. or hired. come in to the office. wait the office has no computers go home. we are the department of government efficiency.

after days of grifters and con men at CES we stumbled upon the booth for VLC. they were all dressed as wizards and told us, "we have nothing to sell, we just decided to show up". i told them I'd been using their software to pirate media for 15 years and they said "keep doing that"

I was working in civic tech in 2016. I was definitely worried, especially given that the contractor I worked for had a lot of Democratic party connections. Nothing major ended up affecting me, but I can't imagine what it'll be like this time.

I hadn't read this before, it's really excellent. I haven't thought about Peter Singer in forever, since encountering his views as a newly minted atheist in college. Somehow I missed that he was involved with effective altruism.

David M. Perry@lollardfish.bsky.social · 3y ago

Here's a gift link to Harriet McBryde Johnson's "Unspeakable Conversations," a 2003 essay about talking to Peter Singer, a man who said the world would be better, would be happier, without disabled people like her. It's worth your time reading.