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Alex Balashov

@abalashov.bsky.social
45 followers 22 following 315 posts

VoIP engineer, Kamailio consultant, SIP systems developer, semi-serious road cyclist, unabashed AI sceptic.

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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 10h
I am quite aware of this research and development tax credit. It is definitely not meant to be used for normal operational expenditures or ordinary capital investments.
nytimes.com
How Meta Uses A.I. Data Centers to Avoid Billions in Federal Taxes (Gift Article)
Meta is exploiting a lucrative tax break intended to support research and experimentation. Its own accountants say the gambit is risky.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
My ClueCon 2026 talk, about open-weight models and de-skilling from agentic coding. Many thanks to the SignalWire team for arranging it, and for the opportunity to speak!
youtube.com
ClueCon 2026 | Alex Balashov: Navigating AI and Open-Source with Sanity
YouTube video by FreeSWITCH
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"But much of the problem can be blamed on Trump and the GOP, the so-called party of fiscal discipline."
theatlantic.com
Lenders Don’t Trust the United States Anymore
Blame Trump for rising borrowing costs.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"It would not be so bad if things had stopped there, but that’s not how most human brains work"
blog.bustikiller.com
One month without AI
Several months ago, I decided that AI contributions were no longer welcome in a FOSS project I am building and maintaining - LibreWeddingPlanner. It’s not that it got a lot of contributions with AI — ...
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Liberal media discovers slow romance and courtship. /s
theatlantic.com
An Underappreciated Problem With Dating Apps
Going on lots of first dates with strangers is not a great way to find love. Getting to know someone slowly is.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"The third-country deportation program has been used by the Trump administration to get around rules barring certain people from being deported to their home countries."
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Scrambles to Stop Third-Country Deportations After Court Ruling (Gift Article)
The decision adds a new burden for the government as it attempts to rapidly remove migrants from the United States without interference from their lawyers.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"The exchange highlights Trump’s warped understanding of journalism—in which stories are either good or bad, reporters are 'friendly' or 'terrible,' and a president decides who covers him and who doesn’t."
theatlantic.com
A Revealing Exchange Between Donald Trump and Kaitlan Collins
The president doesn’t understand how journalism works.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"But the old order’s failures do not mean that its restraints were meaningless."
theatlantic.com
The Makings of a Prewar World
President Trump’s speech to the United Nations clarifies the vision he shares with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I've said this my whole life, but does anyone listen to me? "Even after recognizing other financial benefits of ownership, such as a tax code that puts a thumb on the scale toward buying, opportunity cost makes the returns to homeownership considerably less spectacular."
wsj.com
Essay | Owning a Home Is Seen as a Financial Holy Grail. But What If It Isn’t?
There are many unrecognized trade-offs to home ownership that can make renting a better economic choice.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
"The Trump administration has agreed to pay at least $410 million to facilitate its so-called 'third-country deportations' for immigrants. As of the end of June, 31 countries, mostly in Latin America or Africa, have made deals to take immigrants expelled from the United States..."
newrepublic.com
Trump Sends Millions to Authoritarian Leaders in Deportation Crackdown
The deals were made at the behest of Stephen Miller.
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Katie Phang @katiephang.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Perpetually “concerned” Susan Collins should be VERY concerned by the latest reporting from ProPublica, revealing her involvement in an alleged bribery/pay to play scheme of awarding defense contracts to a specific firm right after that company made campaign “donations." youtu.be/f2fFlCPjKnk?...
youtu.be
GOP Senator CAUGHT RED-HANDED In MASSIVE BRIBERY SCHEME Probe!?!
YouTube video by Katie Phang
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
To the people rewriting things in Rust for “performance”: you know C has been around since the 70s? What’s stopped you rewriting everything in C?
abc7chicago.com
Man says Naperville officer stalked him with Flock technology after starting affair with his fiancée
Patrick Dowhen tells the I-Team he was tracked using Flock after a Naperville police officer began having an affair with his fiancée.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
"But what once appeared to allies like temporary political turbulence is now looking like a more lasting change in Washington’s priorities."
theatlantic.com
America’s Allies Are No Longer Waiting for Trump to Leave
They now figure isolationism and protectionism will be U.S. foreign policy for a long time to come.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"Trump has not only halted the agonizingly slow accommodation of conservative whites to a multiracial nation, he has also legitimated and exacerbated the most toxic attitudes toward race and immigration held by Republican voters."
nytimes.com
Opinion | Trump Makes Republicans More Racist and Democrats Less So (Gift Article)
The president is recasting the U.S. government as an instrument of prejudice.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"The message Mr. Miller described quickly turned into policy. Now, a year later, it is clear how bright a line of demarcation the period after Mr. Kirk’s death has become in the efforts by President Trump and his allies to target Americans they see as 'the enemy within.'"
nytimes.com
How Trump Has Cracked Down on Dissent Since the Killing of Charlie Kirk (Gift Article)
The White House has labeled critics terrorists, attributed violence to a left-wing conspiracy and investigated unions, nonprofits and other groups in a battle over free speech.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding thousands of detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, an unannounced move that has made it far more difficult for lawyers and relatives to find them..."
apnews.com
AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding most detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, in a move that has made it harder for lawyers an...
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"Massie and some Democrats have argued it’s because, if a vote were called, it could have attracted the support of almost every Democrat and enough Republicans to succeed in the House — a messaging embarrassment for Trump and the GOP."
ms.now
Democrats have stumbled onto a new impeachment strategy
Democrats have plenty of experience in impeaching President Donald Trump. But there’s a different approach that’s already picking up steam thanks to one of Trump’s most persistent GOP critics.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
honestly laughing so hard. we're doomed. but we'll be able to laugh at his fails a lot as we swirl the bowl
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"'Get real-time updates and live events streamed DIRECTLY to your phone,' the White House wrote on X on Monday. It pitched the official app as a way to receive 'the news that matters most — straight from the Trump Administration.'"
the-independent.com
White House shredded for promoting its own news app after Trump’s media ban
The White House promoted its official app as a way to receive ‘the news that matters most’
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"The agreements have been secured under the orders of Stephen Miller... known for his relentless anti-immigration focus, has been able to push key appointments at the State Department that have allowed him to overrule other foreign policy objectives in his goal of achieving more deportations."
archive.ph
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"Pentagon whistleblowers send 'urgent SOS' about Pete Hegseth in extraordinary public appeal: 'Dumb, deluded and utterly incompetent'..."
dailymail.com
Pentagon whistleblowers send 'urgent SOS' about 'dumb' Pete Hegseth
Pentagon staffers are risking their careers to blow the whistle on the disarray and discontentment consuming the Department of Defense under Secretary Pete Hegseth.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
"Stephen Miller is leading an unprecedented and intense White House drive across a host of government departments to accelerate the removal of undocumented immigrant children from the US, using tactics that critics say are cruel and racist and, in some cases, flout federal law..."
theguardian.com
Trump ally Stephen Miller leads sweeping push to accelerate removal of migrant children
Exclusive: key White House loyalist orchestrating multi-agency effort condemned by critics as cruel and racist
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"Two men deported to Equatorial Guinea by the Trump administration were hooded, bound, beaten with guns and shoved down a flight of stairs recently by police officers at a remote hotel where immigrants are being held indefinitely, according to witnesses and lawyers."
nytimes.com
A Central African Hotel Has Become a Nightmare Prison for U.S. Deportees (Gift Article)
Witnesses say men were hooded and beaten in Equatorial Guinea. The autocratic government there is a partner in President Trump’s deportation program.
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DeFlock @deflock.org · 18/09/2026
"Everyone should study the movement against Flock. Take notes. These ordinary people from all walks of life are teaching us how to seize back control of our future." 🫠 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/o... #Flock #DeFlock #Axon #Surveillance #AxonAxoff #fyp #trending #ALPR #AI
nytimes.com
Opinion | How Flock Cameras Became the Enemy
The campaign against Flock shows that fighting to protect personal privacy isn’t a lost cause.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"The brief ... urged the court to conclude that the First and Fourth Amendments require the government to obtain a warrant before searching a cellphone at the border. The Second Circuit rejected these arguments in today’s ruling."
knightcolumbia.org
Second Circuit Allows Government to Search Electronic Devices at the Border Without Any Suspicion
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"Ossoff events are a warm bath for Democrats because they represent exactly what they’ve been demanding since Trump’s reelection: a leader who demonstrates some mettle and who, by virtue of his youth, can communicate a vigorous, anti-Trump message using modern methods."
theatlantic.com
Jon Ossoff Is Doing Something Different
What does that mean for 2028?
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"It's not just China. Foreign governments are pulling back on buying Treasury securities, and hedge funds and other private investors are filling the void."
axios.com
China's great Treasury unwind
Other foreign governments are pulling back on buying Treasurys, and private investors are filling the void.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"The Trump Justice Department scrapped a settlement compelling Alabama to provide adequate sanitation systems to residents living with raw sewage, describing it as 'DEI.'"
theatlantic.com
Who Made America Poorer and Dirtier?
The people in charge are really hoping you’ll blame someone else.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"But the Supreme Court’s decision on Monday was more of an exception than a rule when it came to checking Mr. Trump’s power in his second term."
nytimes.com
Trump’s Effort to Assert Control Over Elections Continues Despite Supreme Court Loss (Gift Article)
President Trump has launched a broad, governmentwide effort to take more control of state-run elections and sow doubt about the outcome.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The Türkmenbaşy jokes are literally writing themselves in my head as events play out in real time... "President Trump... writing on social media that the only guardrail the industry needed it already had: 'a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.'"
en.wikipedia.org
Saparmurat Niyazov - Wikipedia
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
"... an effort to answer a variant of an age-old riddle: Can Trump devise a policy so ill-conceived that even Trump’s intelligence is insulted?" www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
Trump Will Never Mail the $5,000 Checks
Deconstructing a policy proposal that makes no sense on any level
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It's a train! The car guys have discovered trains. What if I told you that you could build a whole transportation infrastructure and system of spatial organisation based on this energy-saving principle? No, I know, pure fantasy...
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is allegedly analyzing Americans' financial data to conduct traffic stops of drivers, some of whom were never flagged of committing any crimes."
military.com
Homeland Security Program Analyzes Americans' Finances to Flag Drivers Who Haven't Committed Crimes: Report
A new report claims one Border Patrol team is in the Spokane Sector in Washington, and another in the Laredo Sector in Texas.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"Belief in the unfettered power of AI seemed to rely on prior faith in AI’s unfettered power."
theatlantic.com
The Thrill of Wanting AI to Destroy the World
An Anthropic researcher quit his job because he believes AI will destroy humanity. His story is going viral because so many others want to believe too.
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Reposted by Alex Balashov
Jason Gorman @jasongorman.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
A toaster could be dangerous if you let it send instructions to critical systems. It's not a measure of intelligence.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"The Trump administration is stepping up efforts to revoke U.S. citizenship from naturalized Americans, with data showing a major increase in denaturalization lawsuits filed this year."
newsweek.com
Denaturalization cases surge as record numbers face losing US citizenship
Trump has ramped up a denaturalization push as lawsuits seeking to revoke U.S. citizenship reach highest level in decades.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Don't know what to make of this "AI is going to kill us all" discourse. I _think_ what they mean is, "someone's going to connect a model to a dangerous harness that offers civilisation-ending tool call levers" or something. May I gently suggest: don't do that?
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Reposted by Alex Balashov
Jason Gorman @jasongorman.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I think it goes something like this... Someone reads a lie on LinkedIn about agentic coding, and thinks "Hmm, they can do that?" They then incorporate that lie into their own lie. Someone reads that lie on LinkedIn and thinks "Hmm..." Rinse & repeat.
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Reposted by Alex Balashov
DeFlock Redmond @deflock-redmond.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Your drone as "first responder" (DFR) program is likely used similarly. Next step is automating this via AI. "turns out police are also using the company’s technology to go after some of the pettiest possible offenses: curfew violations, loitering, & simply being homeless" #deflock #surveillance
theintercept.com
Cops Are Using Flock to Spy on People for the Crime of Standing Around
Police scanned Flock cameras in a single town in Illinois more than 1,200 times to investigate cases of loitering.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
We’re coming up on an important anniversary! I dropped out of UGA in fall 2006, the first semester of my junior year. Whether celebration or mourning is warranted is hard to say, and hotly contested in any case.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Americans are more skeptical of government information than they were a few years ago, with majorities now saying they have little or no trust in federal government information about elections and politics, foreign affairs or the environment, a new poll finds. apnews.com/article/poll...
apnews.com
Mistrust of US government information is rising across major issues, new poll shows
A new AP-NORC/USA Facts poll finds that Americans are more skeptical of government information than they were a few years ago, with majorities now saying they have little or no trust in federal govern...
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Extroverted people can be made to seem--or even, themselves, to feel--like introverts in unfavourable environments, where they're stuck with deeply uninteresting people or activities. Even highly sociable people don't socialise for socialisation's sake alone, nor are they magicians.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"Even leaders in the country’s most reliably red states, heeding the cries of their constituents, are now cutting ties with Flock. No one wants to get spied on, it seems, even Blue Lives Matter conservatives."
newyorker.com
Flock Wants a Closely Surveilled World with No Exit
The company, which has a hundred and thirty thousand cameras monitoring the streets of the U.S., frames privacy as a worthwhile trade-off for safety and security, echoing the language of the post-9/11...
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
“Instead of an agent reviewing the element, such as a button or a field, to understand its purpose, the website declares the element's purpose, so it's used correctly” Wait, I thought we achieved AGI? Why is this necessary?
developer.chrome.com
WebMCP  |  AI in Chrome  |  Chrome for Developers
WebMCP has two APIs that allow browser agents to take action on behalf of the user.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"They’re sick of a Democratic Party that does the functional equivalent of sending a strongly worded letter while democracy burns down around us. That tension—absolutely not, but also yes—is the defining mood among Democratic voters right now."
chatgpt.com
ChatGPT
ChatGPT helps you get answers, find inspiration, and be more productive.
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"'In the mainstream media, this kind of violence is being normalised. We believe very strongly in the power of cinema to denormalise this violence and to show what's happening,' Poitras told a news conference."
msn.com
MSN
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Reposted by Alex Balashov
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Curious how facts like this are all over the English press, but in US print media not to be found
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"Israeli 'terrorists' are conducting ethnic cleansing in the West Bank with the tacit backing of the government, the UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband has said, as he announced sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements alongside France and Canada."
theguardian.com
UK accuses Israeli ‘terrorists’ of ethnic cleansing in West Bank with government backing
In strongest condemnation ever by UK government, Ed Miliband announces sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements
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Alex Balashov @abalashov.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
"The Republican Party is scrambling to give away free tickets to Donald Trump’s midterm convention, in a frantic bid to pack the arena as countless GOP lawmakers and candidates stay away."
msn.com
MSN
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