No new ESPN+ content this week, but that will change now that I’m in Florida to see a little spring training and at least two potential first-rounders while I’m here. I did hold a Klawchat on Thursday and a Periscope video chat on Friday.
I sent out the latest edition of my free email newsletter on Friday, this time discussing a hypothesis I have on how some teams handle low-ceiling teenaged prospects; you can sign up here and maybe I’ll send you something too.
And now, the links…
- Longreads first: I have four pieces in this week’s roundup from the New Yorker, including two longreads. I subscribe to their site – I signed up right after I cancelled my New York Times subscription – and, if you have the disposable income, I recommend it. The first is Jane Mayer’s incredible, horrifying piece on the transformation of Fox News into a Trump propaganda network, the closest thing we’ve ever had to state TV in this country.
- The second longread profiles kaiseki chef Niki Nakayama, a pioneer here in a niche cuisine dominated by men.
- Ben Lindbergh and Rob Arthur received a large file of thousands of scouting reports from the Cincinnati Reds from 1991 to 2003 and wrote up some of what they found from global analysis and looking at specific players in a three-part series. I’m quoted several times in the first piece, but I will mention again that I’m a little uncomfortable with this information, which is outdated but would still be classified as trade secrets, getting out to the public.
- The Verge looks at popular Twitter user & activist Dr. Eugene Gu, who has been accused of sexual assault and of misrepresenting portions of his resume.
- There’s been a lot of very bad writing in the last week over Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and her comments on Israel and AIPAC. I thought this Politico piece contrasting Omar’s place on the policy continuum with that of fellow Rep. Dean Phillips, who represents a district that borders on Omar’s, was one of the few good pieces. Omar ended up in the news again for her candid comments on President Obama’s tenure, including his decision to continue the drone strike program started by his predecessor, and for her comments that questioned whether some people have “allegiance” to Israel, the latter being taken completely out of context and used as more evidence of anti-Semitism. It’s not, as you can see from this transcript of her remarks. AIPAC is a powerful lobbying group, and AIPAC is not Israel is not Judaism.
- A Florida massage parlor owner has been selling access to President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. I’m not sure how this isn’t a bigger story.
- The framing here isn’t great but this New Yorker piece on the risk that we become so overwhelmed by climate change’s dangers that we give up is still worth a read. I haven’t run into this sentiment anywhere online or in the real world, at least not yet.
- The New Yorker‘s Masha Green looks at why measles is “a quintessential political issue” of 2019, drawing parallels to Michael Cohen’s testimony while excoriating our public-health system.
- Dorit Reiss writes in the San Francisco Chronicle that non-vaccinating parents should be liable for damages when their kids start outbreaks. This would put a stop to some vaccine refusals – plenty of wealthy or high-income parents are vaccine deniers, too – but even marginal increases in vaccination rates will boost herd immunity.
- For example, many of you already saw the story of an Oregon boy, aged 6, who nearly died of tetanus and racked up about $1 million in hospital bills. One, the parents should lose custody; they subjected their son to an entirely preventable, prolonged period of physical suffering. (It’s described in detail in the article. Imagine putting your kid through that.) Two, those costs, which don’t include the opportunity costs of that helicopter or the associated doctors being unable to take care of other patients, are the result of the parents’ active decision not to vaccinate. They should be liable for all of it.
- A Chicago man who wasn’t vaccinated as a kid, then caught measles at age 30 and nearly died from it says parents have “no excuse” for deciding not to vaccinate.
- UK Health Minister Simon Harris has warned social media companies over anti-vaccine ads ($).
- The Sackler family’s role in fueling the opioid epidemic to further enrich themselves represents a significant policy failure, according to the Washington Post‘s Charles Lane.
- It looks like Big Tobacco and now its partners in the vaping world may have helped push FDA head Scott Gottlieb out of his job. He was a rarity in this Administration, an official who took a tough stance on regulating harmful products in the name of the public interest.
- The era of easy recycling is over as China is no longer interested in our recyclables. Add this to your Green New Deal proposals: we need more reduction and reuse, and easier access to composting. I have had a working compost pile for five years now, and it makes a noticeable difference in reducing my trash, but even that isn’t enough to take all of my compostable plant-based items, and I can’t compost meat or dairy scraps or even most paper materials in there because it’s not big enough. (I have composted a few cotton shirts, though.)
- Writer/producer Amy Berg posted a Twitter thread explaining the Writers Guild of America’s conflict-of-interest complaint that the major talent agencies representing them, which could lead to some pretty drastic action as soon as the end of this month. (Full disclosure: I am represented by WME.)
- Steven Spielberg wants to ruin the Oscars out of spite. Well, the Oscars aren’t so hot anyway, but he wants to make them worse by ensuring that Netflix titles and, as a secondary consequence, other indie films have a harder time qualifying for the awards. Spielberg went on to yell at several clouds that he said looked too much like the amazon logo.
- Drew Magary – back from the brink – goes goes General Sherman on Barstool Sports in the wake of the latter’s aggressive legal tactics to try to get away with copyright infringement.
- Jane Coaston explains right-wing grifter Jacob Wohl, recently banned from Twitter for admitting he’s made and continues to make fake accounts to try to influence elections and/or get gullible conservatives to send him money.
- Parker Molloy shows how conservative outlets and commentators use “Mister Gotcha”-like claims of hypocrisy against Democratic politicians or candidates to derail actual debate over policies.
- An Alabama court ruled that an aborted fetus’s biological father had some say in whether the pregnancy was terminated while ruling the fetus had legal standing to sue, a huge step backwards for women’s rights and for secularism.
- This video clip from INSIDER explains why white savior movies are bad for Hollywood and for viewers.
- A new, deluxe edition of the Martin Wallace classic Age of Steam is now up on Kickstarter. The new version includes brand-new artwork and a better color scheme.
- A roll-and-write version of the great tile-laying game Lanterns called Lanterns: Dice in the Sky is available for pre-order, with May delivery expected.
- Game designer Rich Gain, who worked as an operations manager at Japanime Games until just a few months ago, lost his fiancée and infant son in a car accident last week; there’s a GoFundMe running on his behalf in the wake of the tragedy.
We don’t have a big enough yard to compost so signed up for a service that will take the refuse. You can get the compost delivered if you want. It has dramatically reduced our trash volume.
Enjoyed this from The Athletic, featuring a guy in Keith’s Top 100. https://theathletic.com/853038/2019/03/07/padres-prospect-logan-allen-knows-a-few-things-about-motivation-his-friend-john-cena-is-partly-to-thank/
I’ve haven’t added meat and dairy to our compost pile because of the fear of a bad odor and, now that we have a small dog, it attracting raccoons, neighborhood cats/dogs, and coyotes (we had a one or two in our neighborhood last year). Are these rational fears? Do you use a compost bin or a pile? I don’t know if you’ve considered writing an article on composting with links that could help folks starting one, but with spring around the corner, it might help.
I’ve had a compost pile for the past 9 years. It helps in many ways. Keeps my septic system healthier with less stuff going down the drain like coffee grinds and other organic matter. I even through some in discarded sourdough starter when I don’t have a use for it. It does attract critters from time to time, but nothing major, though something left a picked clean animal bone on it one time. That was a bit concerning. I made mine out of pallets and chicken wire. Be sure to use chemical / pesticide free pallets. If you turn the fresh organic matter into the pile, you will attract less wildlife.
Actually, I’ve had a compost pile of some sort all my life. We had ponies and horses growing up, so we threw lots of stuff into the manure pile. Wish I had known, would have thrown the organic kitchen waste in there as well.
As someone familiar with “score compression” in the arena of grant review, I found the description of scouting behavior to be interesting. NIH “solves” the problem by trying to encourage reviewers to *use the whole scale* (which doesn’t necessarily work because of the psychology involved), and by calculating percentiles from the scores for each reviewers panel. I would be curious if teams tried to account for scouting score compression in a similar way.
^….threw in…
I have tremendous respect for both you and your work, Keith. Re: the article and your take on Rep Omar, I’d simply suggest that telling Jews what is and isn’t anti-Semitic is kind of like white people telling Native Americans that Chief Wahoo and the Redskins aren’t racist. IMHO, it kind of ought to be Jews who get to decide what is racist language regarding Jews.
As a progressive Jew who detests AIPAC, Likud, Bibi, the settlements and occupation and supports unconditionally a two state solution with full Palestinian independence and self-determination, I’ve been terribly disappointed by how many fellow progressives have straight up told me that I have no right to my feelings, which, to my kind, is straight out of the “triggered snowflake” GOP playbook. Please realize I’m not at all suggesting that is what you are doing. Just food for thought.
How is saying that a political lobby uses money to influence politics anti-Semitic in any way?
If that’s all she had said, I’d have no problem with it. The problem is that she’s said lots of stuff besides that which trafficked in what many Jews (myself included) consider anti-Semitic slurs. Talking about Israel “hypnotizing the world” is not a policy prescription. It is a paraphrase of the protocols of the elders of Zion and thousands of years of similar claims. I’m not calling her a racist or an anti-Semite. I cannot pretend to know what’s in her heart. She may be ignorant of how hurtful her words are and their historical connotations. If I spoke with her, I’d tell her that she is an elected official in the YS Congress and she ought to be more careful about how she phrases her words, and if she doesn’t understand why they are upsetting, after multiple incidents, she should reach out to the Jewish community to learn why. She’d probably discover in the process that a large percentage of American Jews (again, myself included) agree with many of her substantive criticisms.
@Mike Bogazc: I say this respectfully, and I obviously do not know your own background, but you may also consider that your reply quite well illustrated my original point. Why are my feelings illegitimate, and why are you telling me what is and isn’t anti-Semitic?
The “hypnotizing” comment was 1) something she said in 2012 and 2) something she has apologized for. I was clearly not mentioning that, and it’s not the comment at the forefront of the current kerfuffle, which leads me to believe you are arguing in less than good faith, so I’m done here.
I don’t really think it’s fair to suggest that Ben is arguing in bad faith. I think Steve King is a racist piece of shit, and I’m more than happy to go well past his most recent white supremacy statement to argue that case. (Note, I’m not arguing that Omar is an anti-semite, just that it’s fair to bring up past statements).
Omar’s recent statements did not set off any anti-semitic dog whistles for me, but I don’t identify as Jewish (my father is Jewish, but that was not my upbringing). My Jewish friends and colleagues are liberal Democrats and had no issue with Omar’s statements, but I would guess that conservative Jews may feel differently on average. While I understand the concerns with Omar’s past statements, it’s hard for me to feel that much of the conservative outrage is in good faith. There is a certain strain of conservative who is more than willing to support Israel because their enemies tend to be Muslim, while simultaneously holding the view that (((globalists))) are out to destroy America.
In my view (not that anyone asked), Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, albeit problematic, and is an important ally in the region. However, we should also be able to call out our allies when necessary. I find it somewhat hypocritical that certain conservatives are willing to call out our European allies, but not Israel. That said, some criticism of Israel certainly does come from a place of anti-semitism, and it’s important to be mindful of that history when leveling criticism. I think the House response to Omar was excessive and frankly rooted in anti-Muslim sentiment, but I also think Omar needs to consider her words more carefully.
Yep we’re in agreement…I just have less patience for bs than you 🙂
What it comes down to is that Palestinians live in an open-air prison, and there are growing worldwide movements of anti-semitism and islamophobia. It’s basically impossible for me to believe that the thing a person gets earnestly upset about enough to comment about is a seven year old comment that’s been apologized for.
Mike, I’m not really sure why you feel the need to insult and belittle me. I’ve been nothing but respectful towards you. I’d appreciate it if you knocked it off. FWIW, I agree with all of your sentiments regarding the plight of the Palestinian people. I’m not upset over a seven year comment, though I was not aware there is a statute of limitations on bigoted comments. Rep Omar has a history of questionable comments. Among others, as a state rep much more recently, her Jewish colleagues were troubled by a number of her statements and tried to sit down with her to work things out. It didn’t go well. There is an article about it in the Minneapolis Star Tribune if you are interested. She took different positions on the BDS movement before and after the election. Lord knows I’m not here to argue the merits of that movement but it is another example of a recent action troubling to many American Jews. My point in commenting was not because I was upset. It was to suggest that in the vast majority of cases, we (correctly) allow the minority group to determine when something is offensive to them or not and I do not see why that shouldn’t be the case here as well. So I was simply suggesting to Keith that he might ruminate on that as he has been (correctly) outspoken as an ally against speech towards many other minority groups. I don’t think it’s that hard a concept. You certainly don’t need to agree with me, but you sure don’t need to insult me either, friend. I think I’m done here too.
Keith-
I’m Jewish. When the Berlin Wall came down, my father had a very powerful reaction that I didn’t understand, because I was 10 at the time. I found out from him that a lot of his extended family had been murdered by Hitler. I spent a long time after that trying to figure out how Hitler could have come to power, gained power, been able to do the things he did.
Part of how he did it was he talked a lot about how Jews had used thier money to buy up members of the German government, that Germany would not have lost World War 1 if it hadn’t been for Jews buying the allegiance of German Government officials.
Why did people believe this? Or why were they willing to believe it? Because it followed hundreds of years of basically the same crap all over Europe.
And here is Rep. Omar doing the same garbage. “So for me, I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is ok for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. And I want to ask, why is it ok for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil fuel industries, or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobby [group?] that is influencing policy.”
If she had said the second thing without the first thing? Maybe she gets the right wing trying to stir the pot, but there wouldn’t be the legs to it, because its the first thing thats drawing heat.
Maybe it didn’t come from a place of bad intentions, but it ABSOLUTELY is the way that people historically get jews murdered. And I call that Anti-Semtiic. And you are wrong, and you are helping to get my children killed by saying its not.
Don’t say something isn’t racism if you don’t understand why people of the targeted group are saying it is. That’s allyship 101.
Funny I thought “allyship 101” was supporting Palestinian’s right to not live under an apartheid state. I also figured an ally would not participate in a right-wing smear of one of the first female Muslim members of Congress, but I guess that’s just me.
It’s a simple fact that AIPAC money (which increasingly comes from evangelicals, btw) is the main reason the US supports the Israeli government (https://www.thenation.com/article/ady-barkan-aipac-ilhan-omar/). Stating that is not anti-Semitic.
If you don’t think the true enemy of the Jewish people is the party of the president who says there were “some very fine people” in Charlottesville, I’m not sure what else to tell you.
Right, Rep. Omar’s word choice (and I can’t take a position on her intention or level of knowledge on the history of the trope in question) sucks all the attention away from the present-day, actually happening humanitarian disaster that is the plight of the Palestinian people. When was the last time any sort of two-state solution framework has been discussed or even alluded to in Washington? To expend all the political energy available to address this issue on the phrasing of one elected representative just gets us further away from any sort of minimally acceptable solution, and I would say those invested in the status quo welcome any shift in focus away from the facts on the ground.
That Politico article did a really good job getting at the core of the tension in the Democratic Party. As for Omar, I agree with a lot of what Ben and Paul said. I also think part of what Omar needs to account for is that this isn’t the first time she’s said something that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic. Do I think she’s an anti-Semite? No, but I think she may be ignorant of the history of certain language. And at some point, ignorance stops being an excuse. This Vox article has a good history of her comments and why they could be dangerous without her meaning them to be: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/6/18251639/ilhan-omar-israel-anti-semitism-jews
I was raised Jewish and I’m with Keith on this.
What Congresswoman Omar said is not anti-Semitic. Rather, partially what we’re seeing is years of successful controlling the narrative by AIPAC.
And something important to remember is what MIke reminds us: the right wants Israel to exist so that all the Jews can die. This is similar to Pence bringing a Jews for Jesus rabbi to the post Pittsburgh ceremony; Pence (and Jews for Jesus) want all Jews to not exist.
The right, and their media empire, can use this to drive a wedge between people on the left, as we can see here. We have to remember that AIPAC is not Israel is not Jews.
(Full disclosure: also brothers with Paul, above)