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Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

@thejeffbyrnes.com
1.4K followers 496 following 5.4K posts

🎸 🎻 bassist 👨🏻‍💻 SRE manager @ athenahealth 🏗️ Steering Committee member & co-founder of Somerville YIMBY 🎮 video gamer 👔 snappy dresser 📚 avid reader 🗺️ Somerville, MA, USA

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Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️
Push The Needle @pushtheneedle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“Unlike the city of Seattle and Sound Transit, the law in British Columbia mandates high-rise zoning of 20 stories for SkyTrain stops, and eight to 12 stories within a short walk.” What’s it like living in a real city with real planners?
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Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 28/09/2026
Didn't have the GOP becoming a nanny state on my 2026 bingo card, wtf
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Lori Levin @lorilevin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Monday thoughts
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Cambridge Somerville Independent @csindie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Joke, smoke and play horseshoes with friends at Cambridge’s Le French Club
dlvr.it
Joke, smoke and play horseshoes with friends at Cambridge’s Le French Club
More than 100 years old, the Association of Notre Dame lives along Massachusetts Avenue, sandwiched unassumingly between Eclipse Video and the wine bar Zusammen and beneath a judo club. The establishment, known colloquially as Le French Club, is an old-school “members only” club that tries to embody... The post Joke, smoke and play horseshoes with friends at Cambridge’s Le French Club appeared first on Cambridge | Somerville Independent.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It is really fascinating to me that people cannot separate his obvious desire to cheat with his ability to do so. I've been arguing about this all year and he's been able to do almost none of the things people thought he might try.
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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
'Which taxes do you want to raise instead?' should be the default question to anyone who calls for reductions in immigration.
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Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 28/09/2026
♫ Top 5 artists of the Last.week: Fred Jackson (28) Red Hot Chili Peppers (20) Ezra Collective (15) The Four Tops (12) Freddie Roach (9). #myweekcounted 189 Scrobbles with Lastfm #music via @lastfm-butialabs.bsky.social
Collage of photos of the bands Fred Jackson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ezra Collective, The Four Tops, Freddie Roach
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 23/09/2026
This is a great piece that shows, in microcosm, how the right-wing is capturing the humanities in higher education and how private corporations like the College Board are going along with it.
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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 23/09/2026
"Keynes saw the interwar period, with its terrible suffering, violence, and illiberal politics, as a highly combustible historical moment. Liberal civilization increasingly seemed to him 'a thin and precarious crust erected by the personality and the will of a few…'"
liberalcurrents.com
You Should Read Keynes
Keynes was a liberal for our age: morally serious, hopeful for a better future, and yet reconciled to the compromises necessary to preserve the fragile liberal order.
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026
This month's @motherjones.com cover is astounding. Reposted with alt text:
Cover of the September-October issue of Mother Jones Magazine: a white background with the words "50 years of fearless journalism" in black print, centered above the name/logo of the magazine in large Bright Red. Below that in black, the words "the southern strategy — jim crow was dead and buried. Then came the Roberts court."

And then, framing those words, there are two sets of robes: to the left, the simple black robes of the Judicial Branch of the United States Government, as a Supreme Court Justice might wear; to the right, the white robes and hood of the KKK.

A white person's hand with cuff of business suit and shirt visible, reaches into the scene from the right, poised to grab the Klan robes.
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CommonWealth Beacon @cwbeacon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The AFL-CIO has joined a group of unlikely bedfellows in opposing ballot Question 3, which would scrap the existing Democratic and Republican primary elections and replace them with a single all-party primary.
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Chris Dwan (he/him) @somershade.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Today I learned that Customs and Border Patrol made an app to allow people to ‘self deport,’ and that app is on both the Apple and Android stores. There are cheerful signs at Logan telling people this. I hate this timeline and I hate what my country has become.
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Becky Robison @rebb003.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I wrote an op-ed about this! But it’s paywalled! I wish it weren’t, but I get why it is! www.courier-journal.com/story/opinio...
courier-journal.com
McConnell embodies America's unhealthy attitude toward death | Opinion
Sen. Mitch McConnell's refusal or inability to step down and focus on his health demonstrates a larger issue of denial in America.
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Abundant Housing Massachusetts @abundanthousingma.org · 23/09/2026
🏆 Meet our 2026 Housing Abundance Awardees! From local organizing and youth leadership to policymaking and coalition-building, this year's honorees represent the many ways people are working to advance housing abundance across MA.
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Lupita Nihongo @otsumamiboy.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026
Oh real quick this word occurs a lot ok social media & I use it too cuz I’m a dork: ‘Ostensibly’ sounds like it just means ‘apparently’ but it actually means ‘them mufuckas is probably lying’. Carry on.
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politiburb @politiburb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
static.klipy.com
Sickos Haha Yes
ALT: Sickos Haha Yes
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Cambridge Day @cambridgeday.com · 23/09/2026
Union Square Main Streets asks for SNAP support Four out of every 10 neighbors are food insecure, according to the Greater Boston Food Bank…...
cambridgeday.com
Union Square Main Streets asks for SNAP support
Four out of every 10 neighbors are food insecure, according to the Greater Boston Food Bank — a staggering rate has more than doubled since 2019. I’ve seen this need firsthand while packing fresh food boxes at Food For Free, handing out free fresh food at the CHA Revere Health Center, and at our weekly Come to the Table meal at Connexion Church.
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Darren Buck @bikepedantic.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Having top secret components shipped directly to a hostile nation is obviously keystone-kops shit, but everything in these last four paragraphs seem even more damning to me www.politico.com/news/2026/09...
From Politico: A Government Accountability Office report from 2023 found that more than 1 million F-35 spare parts have gone missing in the past five years. The watchdog agency concluded the department hasn’t been able to review spare part losses worth tens of millions of dollars because Lockheed controls the information.

“The F-35 Joint Program Office does not track or enter these spare parts into an accountable property system of record that would enable it to capture and store real-time changes to property records,” the report said. “The prime contractors maintain this information.”

Spare parts shortages mean the fighter jet is often grounded. While sustainment costs have continued to increase, the F-35 has not met performance goals and performance “has trended down,” according to a GAO report from this year.

The program is on track to be the world’s costliest, and the Pentagon expects to spend almost $2 trillion over the course of its lifespan.
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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Strange article from Strong Towns on "filtering". Fundamentally, they do not believe in indirect spillover effects, where adding high-end supply can reduce low-end rents. Instead, we have to intentionally and directly target the low-end. 1/
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Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 23/09/2026
"Trickle-down" is a bad-faith comparison to vacancy chains. Most households moving into new homes *move out of* existing homes. They give them up.* "Trickle-down" required no such sacrifice; those who had money got to keep their money, and have more.
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Nick Fish @nickfish.me · 23/09/2026
This sentence is just about the perfect encapsulation of the Trump DOJ, isn't it?
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Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 23/09/2026
arstechnica.com
Contrary to some reports, you don't have two brains
A bad press release makes a good excuse to look at how developmental biology works.
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Your fave's fave @actually.roiskinda.cool · 23/09/2026
This is so far ahead of what anyone else is doing in terms of providing tools for indie online communities to thrive. We're watching innovation happen in real time.
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#StupidSuez @diplomatofnight.com · 23/09/2026
For the first time ever, a group of Senate Democrats will unveil a bill tomorrow that would impose sanctions on "foreign companies, individuals or other entities" which are involved in the E1 settlement project in the illegally-occupied West Bank. Its authors are Warren, Coons, Gallego and Wyden.
reuters.com
US Senate Democrats seek sanctions over Israeli settlements, bill says
A group of US Senate Democrats will introduce legislation on Wednesday to sanction individuals or ​groups that facilitate Israel's "E1 project," a widely condemned West Bank settlement plan cutting ac...
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Trevon Logan @trevondlogan.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It’s amazing how the media cooperates to make some issues salient and completely ignores others. We went from North Carolina being protested against for an anti-trans bathroom bill in 2016 to now every politician being asked their position on a dozen or so athletes in ALL of K-16.
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Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 21/09/2026
♫ Top 5 artists of the Last.week: Donald Byrd (8) Ezra Collective (6) Freddie Roach (3) Polyrhythmics (2) STFC (2). #myweekcounted 29 Scrobbles with Lastfm #music via @lastfm-butialabs.bsky.social
Collage of photos of the bands Donald Byrd, Ezra Collective, Freddie Roach, Polyrhythmics, STFC
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 19/09/2026
This miracle is the fruit of generations of enormous and bipartisan investments of public research support for our universities. Future versions of this miracle are what we are currently losing, due to the US Administration’s decision to shatter the public’s partnership with our universities. 
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
FINAL FANTASY VI being like the third RPG I ever played made me a fan of the genre for life but also left me chasing a high I could never get again
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Super Shoe @shoe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is incredible nitter.app/banteg/statu... H/t @gregdoucette.bsky.social
nitter.app
banteg (@banteg)
>be me >discover effective altruism >apparently normal charity is inefficient >why donate to random sad thing when spreadsheet can tell you optimal sad thing >fair enough >buy mosquito nets >save live...
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Thor Benson @thorbenson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Democratic strategists: Ahhh! What's the right message!!?? Where do we moderate!?!? Jon Ossoff: This administration is horrible. I hate these people. We should put them in jail. I'm pissed Voters: This guy is cool Strategists: I can't figure it out!!!!!
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Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The Anthropic, Meta, and Google "breaking containment" incidents all resulted from setup errors (or a stunt) by the same company: Irregular. Irregular created a sandbox that wasn't really a sandbox because it had a live internet connection, and gave instructions that were then carried out online.
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Chef Kennedy🐸🏳️‍🌈 @kennedy.northsky.social · 17/09/2026
It is extremely, EXTREMELY, insensitive to descendants of the Holocaust to in any way downplay the seriousness of talking about people being "sent to camps", a statement that should not be normalized in any way at all. Ever. Because of all the people that died, Aaron.
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Sam @samd.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Jamelle Bouie said it best (per usual) Trump has the mentality of a domestic abuser h/t @jamellebouie.net
jamelle@@jamellebouie.net • 1d
"trump will destroy everything he cannot own in perpetuity" is one reason i am filled with dread over 2028
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Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 16/09/2026
Oh look, it's humans in the loop (derogatory)
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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran. Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.

I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.
But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.

The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that.

Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other
stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

Ed was in …What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me.

And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.

I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed.
Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.

When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic:
لا شكر على واجب
"La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty.
That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.

Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…
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Derek Powazek @fraying.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Got my Covid and flu shots. If you care about other people, do the same. It’s easy.
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 14/09/2026
Kudos to the Stars and Stripes staff for still pressing on with reporting on the Pentagon's politically motivated firings of their former boss and colleagues, and the ongoing political censorship of their reporting
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Josh Kaplan @josh-kaplan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
NEW: Don Trump Jr’s luxurious wedding was secretly bankrolled by a Russian oligarch close to Putin. A saga involving private islands, the Olympics, and a Russian government-backed biker gang: www.propublica.org/article/dona...
propublica.org
Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...
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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 14/09/2026
I really understand why basically every religion warns against extreme wealth.
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 14/09/2026
We are not going to get out of the fascism problem by accepting just enough fascism to turn the heads of the fascism-curious.
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Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 14/09/2026
♫ Top 5 artists of the Last.week: Sam Yahel (40) Oscar Peterson Trio (39) Sam Yahel Trio (24) Aaron Parks (11) Baby Face Willette (11). #myweekcounted 231 Scrobbles with Lastfm #music via @lastfm-butialabs.bsky.social
Collage of photos of the bands Sam Yahel, Oscar Peterson Trio, Sam Yahel Trio, Aaron Parks, Baby Face Willette
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Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
1. Should a $1 billion company qualify as a "small business"? The Trump administration is proposing a radical change to how the government defines a small business. Not only would big companies get access to small business support. The change would be deeply harmful to actual small businesses.
ilsr.org
Trump's New SBA Size Standards will Hurt Small Businesses
Trump's proposed SBA size standards could accelerate the corporate consolidation the agency was established to fight
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 09/09/2026
Hey friends: I made a @changeorge.bsky.social petition, so we can actually indicate that it’s wrong for a criminal bigot to be at a ceremony meant to honor those who were lost. I’d appreciate if you took a moment to sign. (Anyone can sign, not just New Yorkers.) c.org/dTXC4f9w4C
c.org
This campaign needs you now
Ban Rudy Giuliani from 9/11 observances
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Bill @bill-of-lefts.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Even from a purely national pride perspective, this requires you to think that the 100 year period from 1926 was a failure for the United States, instead of the zenith of its power, prosperity, and influence
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Mekka Okereke @mekka.mekka-tech.com · 09/09/2026
The reason I don't like the "It's the phones!🤡" analysis, is that it's lazy and wrong. I don't care that much if people pick on smartphones. I don't. It's glass and metal and sand. It doesn't have feelings. I care because that lazy analysis causes people to stop caring about poor rural students.
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Cool Bike Art @coolbikeart1.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I've lived in rural areas in both the US and Slovakia, and Slovakia has it figured out. Regional buses. Everywhere .They service virtually every wide spot in the road in the country. Slovakia has about a 40% car-ownership rate, due in part to all the buses.
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Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 09/09/2026
A reminder to get off Xitter, it is poisoning your mind.
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Devin Burghart @dburghart.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Today, the Heritage Foundation, the org behind Project2025, took credit for driving Lonnie Bunch out the Smithsonian Institution. Bunch was the first African American and first historian to serve as head of the Smithsonian. But sure, tell me again how it’s not about racism.
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Arizona Right Watch @azrww.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
An immeasurable amount of harassment stemmed from this horrible website, including the assault of a professor at Arizona State University. Good fucking riddance.
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