Mitch's Blog

Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in California over bird flu.

“This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak,” Newsom said in a statement. “While the risk to the public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this virus.”

With the federal government about to be taken over by bumbling criminals, Newsom reminds me why I’m relieved to live in California, which has a functioning government.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine misinformation campaign helped cause a measles outbreak in Samoa [in 2019] that killed 83 people, mostly kids."

Since I upgraded to Apple Intelligence a couple of days ago, it has twice started talking to me while I’m wearing my AirPods and conversing with an actual person. I was on a videoconference with my boss’s boss this afternoon, and the AirPods started talking and would not shut up. This is highly annoying at best and it potentially made me look like an idiot in front of someone who signs my paycheck. Utter failure on the part of Apple product design; I am highly dissatisfied.

Following up on my friend Steven J. Vaughan-Nicols' article praising the Perplexity search engine, I decided to do a fast, spontaneous test.

Reading the news over lunch, I saw that an actress named Jill Jacobson had died. The obit said she was in Star Trek.

I said to myself, “I wonder who she played on Star Trek?”

The article said she appeared on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine.”

First I asked ChatGPT what characters she played. ChatGPT replied that she only ever appeared on TNG. I asked about DS9, and it said she had not appeared on that show.

I searched Kagi. Interestingly, Kagi turned up several articles titled “Who did Jill Jacobson play on Star Trek”—the exact words of my query.

I know that’s a common SEO trick (“What time is the Super Bowl?”) but would not think that would be implemented for such a specific question.

Google’s AI summary says “Vanessa” on TNG, with no mention of DS9.

And here is Perplexity’s answer — complete, concise, and impressive.

What’s the real answer? I can’t say for sure; I’m not a superfan of those particular iterations of Trek. However, I consider the Memory Alpha wiki definitive on issues of Trek lore, and it agrees with the IMDB.

“All eyes are on Bend, Oregon, where a mysterious vandal (or group of vandals) has been sticking large, plastic googly eyes on public art sculptures around the city." The photos alone are worth a click.

Looking around for places to have Christmas dinner. I asked ChatGPT what restaurants are open. First two on the list: Denny’s and IHOP. lol no

“With the polio vaccine in the news, I want to tell some of my mom’s story: My mom got polio when she was a kid living in southern California, pre-vaccine…. Polio didn’t ruin her life, but it has stolen it in slices."

"… if you legislate as if everyone is big tech, big tech is all you will end up with."

Daring Fireball: On the Accountability of Unnamed Public Relations Spokespeople.

Unnamed public relations spokespeople are unaccountable for errors and lies.

I go along with the journalism custom of using unnamed PR people. Perhaps I should not.

Hamilton Nolan:

If billionaires are destroying our country in order to serve their own self-interest, the reasonable thing to do is not to try to quibble over a 15% or a 21% corporate tax rate. The reasonable thing to do is to eradicate the existence of billionaires. If everyone knows our health care system is a broken monstrosity, the reasonable thing to do is not to tinker around the edges. The reasonable thing to do is to advocate Medicare for All. If there is a class war–and there is–and one party is being run completely by the upper class, the reasonable thing is for the other party to operate in the interests of the other, much larger, much needier class. That is quite rational and ethical and obvious in addition to being politically wise. The failure of the Democratic Party, institutionally, to grasp the reality that it needs to be running left as hard as possible is a pathetic thing to watch. When the current situation is broken and one party is determined to break it further, the answer is not to be the party of “We Want Things to Be Broken Somewhat Less.” The answer is to be the party that wants to fucking fix it. Radicalism is only sensible, because lesser measures are not going to fix the underlying state of affairs.

And if the decline of labor unions is robbing the working class of its most powerful tool and undermining the general health of society, the reasonable thing for the labor movement to do is not to play footsie with a political party that has shown repeatedly through words and deeds that it stands against the existence of organized labor. The answer is spend every last dollar we have to organize and organize and strike and strike. Women are workers. Immigrants are workers. The poor are workers. A party that is banning abortion and violently deporting immigrants and economically assaulting the poor is not a friend to the labor movement, ever. (An opposition party that cannot rouse itself to participate on the correct side of the ongoing class war is not our friend, either–the difference is that the fascists will always try to actively destroy unions, while the Democrats will just not do enough to help us, a distinction that is important to understand.)

…

When political pundits and strategists and party operatives anchor their sense of reality in a bygone era that no longer exists, they are bound to misjudge what is happening now. They are bound to fail to recognize the reorientation of the national landscape, the tilting of the ground that requires a lean left in order to keep things stable. There is a class war, it is being won by the rich, and they are about to stage an enormous offensive for the next four years. Position yourselves accordingly. It is one thing to fight against great power and lose. That is part of fighting. That is forgivable. What is not forgivable is to see all this coming, and to choose to continue to stand in the same place and say the same things and advocate for the status quo and pretend that America just needs to “get back to normal.” “Normal” has been broken for the lifetimes of most of the people alive today. Radicalism is only getting more and more correct. Recognize it or get run over.