I had three posts for subscribers to the Athletic this week, one column on what’s going on each day over at teams’ alternate sites; and two scouting notebooks, one on Casey Mize, Dane Dunning, and Alec Bohm, and the other on Tarik Skubal, Dylan Carlson, and the Nats’ Luis García.
My guest on the Keith Law Show this week was my friend Craig Calcaterra, late of NBC Sports’ Hardball Talk and now the author of his own subscription newsletter Cup of Coffee. I also appeared on Blue Jays broadcaster Dan Shulman’s podcast Swingand a Belt, talking about what this lost minor league season means for prospects and the teams that employ them; and on the U.S. Army’s Mad Scientist program podcast The Convergence, talking about my new book, The Inside Game, and what might help people become better analysts in a world awash in data.
For Paste, I previewed many of the major board game titles due out for the rest of 2020, including the follow-up to Wingspan from Elizabeth Hargrave and a new game inspired by New Jersey’s infamous Action Park.
My free email newsletter returned this week, with thoughts on just how exhausting this science-denying, homophobic slur-using world has become.
And now, the links…
- Longreads first: One reason why many of us feel so awful is that our cognitive ‘surge capacity’ is depleted, writes science journalist Tara Haelle, who provides suggestions to help us rebuild it.
- The Washington Post profiles Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, although in some ways I think it still let him off the hook for his decision to support a party and President that have both acted strongly against racial equality and justice in the last four years.
- One reason so many people still fail to understand the seriousness of the pandemic’s spread is exponential growth bias, where we have a hard time intuitively understanding how that mathematical function works.
- COVID deniers love to point to Sweden as a success story, since the country didn’t lock down yet seemed to have the pandemic under control. Sweden just reported its highest death toll for the first six months of a year since 1869. Their case fatality rate is also double that of neighboring Norway.
- The rush to reopen bars and restaurants is a major reason why we can’t get this pandemic under control.
- The CDC said we could likely control it in 12 weeks if most Americans wore masks and adhered to physical distancing guidelines.
- Dr. Jen Gunter wrote in praise of “WAP” while criticizing longstanding, misogynistic taboos on the subjects of female sexuality and, er, natural lubrication.
- Writing for Slate, Ray Suarez says that the NRA might not survive the New York state’s lawsuit to dissolve it. We should only be so lucky, after the NRA was a major reason the Violence Against Women Act was allowed to lapse in 2019.
- Rush Limbaugh’s descent continued this week as he mocked Joe Biden for having lost multiple family members to tragic, early deaths, and then referred to Kamala Harris as a ‘ho’ and claimed she slept her way to various political offices.
- The Atlantic‘s John Hendrickson looks at how 13-year-old Brayden delivered the best speech of this week’s Democratic National Convention. You can see the video of when Brayden first met Joe Biden, and how Biden encouraged Brayden not to let his stutter define or limit him.
- A pilot project to release genetically modified mosquitoes that produce female eggs that die as larvae in the Florida Keys has received final approval. It could be a major step in controlling mosquito-borne diseases from malaria to Zika to dengue.
- Writer Shakeia Taylor told the CBC that MLB isn’t doing enough to combat the structural racism within the industry.
- Two Detroit police officers who coerced a 14-year-old boy into confessing to two murders who didn’t commit and who fabricated evidence in that case are still on the job and aren’t on the county’s do-not-call list of police officers who’ve committed crimes or other forms of misconduct.
- Board game news: A few games were announced in the days after I filed my second-half preview, including Anno 1800, an adaptation of an Ubisoft video game by longtime designer Martin Wallace (Steam, Brass).
- Meeple Mountain is giving away a copy of Fairy Trails, the new two-player game from Uwe Rosenberg.
“The CDC said we could likely control it in 12 weeks if most Americans wore masks and adhered to physical distancing guidelines.”
It pathetic that we as a country can’t get it together enough to try this and see if it works.
Keith,
Will you be writing up either of the Phillies trades on the Athletic? If not, would you share your thoughts on parting with Seabold and Russ?
That video of when Biden first met Brayden needs a warning message that it might get dusty, especially for me since my dad stuttered.
Biden had zero issue with his stutter his entire career. Now he’s sundowning and it’s suddenly a thing? I mean, the lengths people will go to justify nominating a clearly declining human is incredible.
I also like that the main thrust of the convention is that he’s a decent human. His record suggests otherwise
He overcame a childhood stutter. That’s not in dispute here. Stating that he’s “sundowning” as a fact is, however, not supported by evidence.
He was never my first choice, and I’d far prefer to see Harris atop the ticket, even though she also wasn’t my first choice. But this “sundowning” and “clearly declining” stuff is really not evidence-based at all.
Do you also think Trump is clearly declining? Because the man has had many more moments of slurring words and being unable to stay on topic than Biden has.
Hmmm, everything that I’ve seen about Biden’s personal life over the last several decades is that he’s a fundamentally decent person. Long-term congress members across the aisle have supported his character, while still disagreeing politically. This comes across as projection of a major Trump weakness.
Biden has been open about his stuttering for at least the past ten years:
https://www.nais.org/magazine/independent-school/spring-2010/joe-biden-reveals-childhood-stuttering-at-lab-scho/
So I would say it is not “suddenly a thing.” And even if were, so what? Stuttering does help to explain some, though certainly not all, of the gaffes and verbal miscues.
Biden is clearly a decent human being unless you hold him to a standard that almost no public figure with a 40-year record can meet. He was also clearly the choice of most registered Democrats this year. He was not my first choice, but if he’s elected he will turn the fight against COVID back to the scientists and public health officials, work to improve health care and income inequality, restore our relationships with our allies, make climate change a priority, bring in qualified people to run governmental agencies, and eschew cozying up to dictators.
The fact that these points apparently need to be made is pretty disheartening.
I think the standard for decent human being should be higher than Iraq War supporter, Crime Bill architect, and accused rapist. You can vote for the man and/or otherwise support him without waving away what he’s done.
I agree with about half of the things you say he’ll do — he’s exacerbated about as many of the problems you cite as he’s helped solve. He was also not clearly the choce of most registered Democrats — witness the vote totals before the mass exodus of candidates. So many of them ran for 18 solid months, only to suddenly drop out after a few contests. Look how quickly the country changed while the primaries were contested – why would none of the other mainstream Dems stay in and see what they could make happen?
The answer, of course, is he was the hurriedly anointed DNC consensus candidate once Sanders started winning, and they directed funding his way — starving the others and making deals with them. That is how it works and I’m done being mad about it, but I’ll never wave away what I’ve observed and read about Biden ever since I was old enough to pay attention. Decent enough, no opinion on the sexual accusations, friend of big banks, the carceral state, and the military industrial complex. A moderate Democrat, in other words.
I am not “waving away” his faults. It would be better if he hadn’t voted for the Iraq war (though John Kerry, Tom Harkin, and Tom Daschle also did–decent people all). It would have been better if he hadn’t written the Crime Bill (though Bernie Sanders, among other decent people, voted for it). And it would also have been better if he hadn’t been accused of sexual assault–though to be accused of something is not quite the same as being found guilty of it. Perhaps most of us can agree that at least in this year’s election, it would be truly bizarre if the pro-decency vote went to the incumbent.
I judge him by his record in public office which is atrocious. I don’t care that he is kind to his staff while he authors and passes legislation that actively makes peoples lives worse. Dems won’t talk about his record because it’s soo bad. Do you think George Bush is a good man? He gave Michelle Obama that candy after all. Oh wait, and he invaded a country and killed somewhere between 500,000 and a million people while destabilizing an entire region. The one Biden argues for Vociferously on the senate floor. His speeches are passionate and without stutter.
And lord, have we watched his speeches when he was younger? He is lucid and frankly a good speaker, versus the stuff now? There is this weird thing that’s happened where it’s taboo to criticize Joe Biden as he is sundowning.
“I judge him by his record in public office which is atrocious.” I sure hope you apply the same standards to the incumbent. If Biden’s record is atrocious, not sure how words are supposed to describe Trump’s.
Brian, are you voting for Jill Stein this time around?
Am I the only one seeing multiple ads for male erectile dysfunction, some inserted into reader posts. I don’t remember seeing so many ads before.
Hey, I’m just seeing ads for Star Trek: Lower Decks merch. But the ads you see are personalized based on your internet activity, so…
“Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate.” 2 black Democrats in the Senate? Come on Keith, it got old a very long time ago. Considering the extreme loyalty Black Americans show the Democratic Party in every election, that is some kinda reward to represent them in the Senate. How about “Tim Scott, one of three Black Americans in the Senate… “
It’s the premise of the entire article.
I thought Limbaugh was dead.
Thoughts and prayers that I am soon proven correct.
Wait, nobody replied condemning someone who is praying that someone else dies? Shouldn’t this be grounds for an immediate comment removal/blocking of commenter?
Just because most readers here disagree with Limbaugh, apparently it’s ok to wish him dead. That is sickening.
“I let him off the hook”… the guy grew up impoverished, from a broken family. You let him off the hook? Pretty certain if anybody knows what it like to black, poor, and rise up without wealthy parents( like Booker and Harris)- it might be Scott. Why would anybody consider this guy for a hook, he should be on a pedestal.. When it comes to racial justice and equality- if he playing for the red team- why aren’t you? I read the article. He is probably the best voice to listen too on these issues. And he rejects the Democrats, and Biden, with passion…
You didn’t read what I wrote – I didn’t say I let him off the hook, but that the article did.
Scott plays for the red team for what appear to be largely religious reasons. His views on the issues are scary. He opposes any kind of sensible gun reform. He opposes measures to combat climate change. He opposed marriage equality (citing the so-called “Biblical definition” of marriage). He opposes a woman’s right to choose. He opposes federal action to decriminalize marijuana (which the NAACP has actively pushed for Congress to do) or any other drugs. He opposes pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He supports extending the Patriot Act, increased government surveillance of US citizens, and continued use of military tribunals for terror suspects. He supports privatizing Social Security. I think he’s wrong on every one of these points.
He has also said that you can “think your way out of poverty.” I’m glad he thinks he did that, but that is not a solution to the massive problems of structural racism and economic inequality that prevent most people from just thinking their way out of poverty.
So, no, he’s not a good voice to listen to on issues of race or anything else. He’s a theocrat, he devalues science in policy decisions, and he’s supported bills that would make American citizens less safe here and abroad.
Do you have any actual experience with sundowning? Claiming Biden is sundowning strongly leads me to believe you have not. When my grandmother was sundowning, she thought people were trying to kill her and was almost completely disconnected from reality. She knew who I was most of the time, but was otherwise confused and aggressive. She was an incredibly prim and proper lady but when sundowning, she was anything but.
So, no, Biden is not sundowning and claiming otherwise significantly undermines your credibility.
Don’t understand why you’d object to the fact that a black man may not have his race as his deciding politcal motivator
I never said that.