Mitch's Blog

It was the kind of machine you’d see behind the counter at a Starbucks or in a cafe that serves fancy coffee drinks. They had hooked up a generator and a five-gallon water tank. I asked one of the men what was happening; he said it was a joint promotion between a local running club and a British shoe brand coming to the US.

When we returned that way again about 30 minutes later, a dozen runners were standing around, and they’d set up a 7-foot high shelf unit with cubbies of running shoes for the runners to try the shoes.

You can barely see the coffee machine in the photo above, peeking out behind the cluster of men in the center.

They offered me coffee, but I declined. I do not think about drinking coffee along with strenuous exercise.

Texas education officials are expected to vote this week on a public school curriculum that focuses on Christianity.

From the curriculum:

What is the Golden Rule?
The Sermon on the Mount included many different lessons. Some of these included do not judge others; do not seek revenge, or try to get even with someone; and give to the needy. Beyond the Sermon on the Mount, there are many rules included throughout the Bible. Jesus said that the Golden Rule sums up all of the important teachings from scripture. “So in everything, do unto others as you would have done unto you."'

These are the same types of people who claim, perhaps even sincerely, that Christmas isn’t a Christian holiday because so much of the celebration is secular.

John Gruber:

“Do not judge others; do not seek revenge, or try to get even with someone; and give to the needy” – the very words that Donald Trump himself lives by.

Oliver Darcy at Status.news:

America now has an unelected defense contractor sitting in the White House doing ketamine and twiddling the algorithmic knobs of an influential right-wing echo chamber while fulminating against traditional standards-based journalism, threatening to revoke network broadcast licenses, and suing advertisers who don’t want to spend their money on his dwindling user base. What could go wrong?

On top of that, Trump’s most likely FCC Chairman is Brendan Carr, who was tasked in the first Trump government to crack down on platform moderation by taking control of Section 230, literally wrote the Project 2025 chapter laying out a plan to do so, and is now begging to punish NBC for having Kamala Harris on “SNL.”

To be as clear as I can be, the second Trump administration with Elon Musk embedded within it represents the most direct and sustained threat to the First Amendment and the freedom of the press any of us will ever experience. If you’re a media executive or editorial leader and you haven’t met with your legal team to understand the current landscape of First Amendment threats, let alone the ones to come, you’re already behind. Get on it.

Regarding Big Tech leaders congratulating Trump on his victory:

All of these men are now hopelessly trapped in a problem their own platforms and algorithms created: they have to manipulate Trump’s narcissism to secure tariff exceptions and regulatory largesse, while knowing that the vast majority of their employees and half of their customers will see any engagement as moral bankruptcy.

The Verge:

Like other methods of measurement created by tech companies, “views,” “impressions,” and other metrics are arbitrary, and as any influencer knows, they can change at the drop of a hat — platforms update and encourage users to prioritize different metrics based on what’s good for the business. And right now, Meta just wants you to keep scrolling.