For subscribers to The Athletic this week, I offered my first “overreaction theater” post, looking at the first three weeks of games from players who made their MLB debuts this month. I also held my first Klawchat in a while on Thursday.
Over at Paste, I reviewed the game Skull Canyon: Ski Fest, which combines a Ticket to Ride-like mechanic with extra rounds where you go get bonus cards that help you rack up more points or do more things with each turn. It’s quite good.
On The Keith Law Show, I spoke with Dr. Ellen Hendriksen, author of the fantastic book How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety (which you can buy here). You can subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I sent out a new issue of my free email newsletter yesterday. You can find both of my books, Smart Baseball and The Inside Game, in paperback anywhere books are sold, including Bookshop.org.
And now, the links…
- Longreads first: You’ve probably seen it by now, but the Washington Post‘s Taylor Lorenz revealed the identity of the woman behind the noxious LibsOfTikTok account, which has been doxing teachers and others who might dare to offer views in support of pro-LGBTQ+ rights.
- Why is the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) holding its convention in Budapest, home to Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, an anti-Semitic Putin adherent? Maybe because they agree with his views – and perhaps are trying to find new funding sources now that Russia’s spigot is off.
- A school superintendent in North Texas has vowed to get rid of any books in school libraries that mention LGBTQ+ themes, including transgender people. It may not be constitutional. It’s certainly pandering to a religious minority. And it mirrors battles going on across the country in public library systems.
- New York has a “Ferguson problem,” where many localities in the state use fines and fees to boost their revenues, with disparate impact on the poor and on residents of color.
- The New York Times, which owns my employer, has been twisting crime statistics to support an argument that the city needs more policing, according to FAIR.org.
- It is way past time that the U.S. end its military support for the Saudi war on Yemen.
- Michigan State Senator Tom Barrett (R) is running for the U.S. House, and sent out a fundraising text that appeared to ask recipients to confirm their child’s “gender reassignment surgery” appointment. This is incredibly vile, but also, it’s fearmongering bullshit. There is no gender reassignment surgery for children. If you want to support his likely opponent, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (MI-8) is running for the same seat after redistricting, and you can donate to her campaign here.
- Speaking of Michigan, State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D) gave an impassioned speech against Republicans’ hateful “grooming” rhetoric aimed at LGBTQ+ people.
- Fragile white alumni of the Virginia Military Institute are fighting to roll back the school’s diversity initiatives.
- Florida Republicans are saying farewell to free speech, according to the notoriously left-wing periodical (checks notes) the National Review. Florida might be the least free state in the country at this point, between their war on math and their campaign to cleanse libraries. The New York Times examined 21 of the math textbooks Florida rejected.
- Meanwhile, the state is only approving math textbooks from one firm, which Virginia’s race-baiting Governor Glenn Youngkin used to run.
- A beautiful response: A Florida resident is circulating petitions to ban any mention of the Bible in public schools there, which has a lot more basis in our Constitution than the state’s attempts to criminalize any mention of sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s stunt at the border turned up no drugs and no migrants, but it will cost the state $4.2 billion. I thought the Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility? How is any taxpayer there okay with this much money, about $425 per Texas household, being thrown away?
- He’s also sending busloads of migrants to Washington, D.C., using people as objects – which, I suppose, is in line with Texas’ history prior to 1865. You can join me in donating to this GoFundMe to help these immigrants travel to their ultimate destinations or provide them with other needed items.
- All the progress we’d made on reducing exemptions to childhood vaccination mandates is eroding, and we’re going to end up worse than where we started as religious zealots seek to further expand those exemptions (even though no major religion opposes vaccinations).
- Employees at the firm that provides QA to the software developer Bioware are trying to unionize.
- How did Barnes & Noble become a tentative ally of independent bookstores? Via a common enemy.
- Board game news: Well, not news, but watch this wonderful 1982 BBC mini-documentary on tabletop gaming.
- Autobahn, a heavy economic game from the designer of Merv and Ragusa, is now on Kickstarter.
- Eagle-Gryphon introduced a pair of new games from Portuguese designers, Lisbon Tram 28 and Porto.
- A school in Uganda is bringing back its annual board game convention for kids for the first time since 2019. They posted on Reddit, looking for funding help, but since I saved this link they’ve actually reached their goal.
- Paradox Interactive, which makes video games and has co-published board games based on several of those titles, announced dates and info for PDXCON 2022. I attended this event in 2018, at their invitation & expense, and enjoyed it quite a bit, although I stuck to the tabletop stuff.
CPAC is certainly worthy of plenty criticism, but calling Orban an Anti-Semitic Putin adherent sure doesn’t line up with the facts. The coalition opposing him in Hungary’s recent election was partly comprised on an explicit anti-Semitic, extreme far right party. And in what possible way is he a Putin adherent? Because he doesn’t risk a geographically exposed country getting involved in a war that happens to involve a country to provides approximately 80% of its energy supply? I’m not a fan or a critic of Orban, but the dishonesty of both sides when discussing him is frustrating.
I mean sure, he’s not rolling out the red carpet like Lukashenko, but they’re certainly like-minded and relations between Hungary and Russia have tightened since he rose to power. Furthermore, any consideration of Orban’s relatively light touch with regards to the current conflict has to be contextualized with a) Hungary’s NATO membership and b) the recent election. In short, I probably wouldn’t use the word “adherent” either, but it’s not exactly wrong.
And the anti-Semitic part is pretty cut and dry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Fidesz#Antisemitism
There’s nothing in your link showing Orban holding anti-Semitic views. It’s just flat out incorrect.
Interesting to call him a Putin adherent because they formed relationships mostly around energy supply. You can certainly say the same about Germany then. What views does Orban hold that are in line with Putin?
Here’s a whole litany of instances of Orbán’s anti-Semitic language and behavior.
Orbán and Vucic are also strongly pro-Putin.
And I didn’t even get into his homophobia.
Are you bothering to read your links or just googling Orban, anti-Semitic and Putin. Again, let’s see some specific words from Orban showing he’s an anti-Semite and holds views in line Putin.
Calling Zelenskyy an enemy of Hungary is pretty pro-Putin. It’s exactly the sort of words Putin would want to hear from his allies. YMMV
I am “bothering” to read the links, Mark. There is no reason to be rude.
I gave you multiple articles providing evidence to support the claims. Here’s another, describing actions he has taken against Jewish communities and his use of anti-Semitic imagery in campaign ads. If you wish to deny these facts, that is your call.
Apologies, I was responding quickly and was unnecessarily rude. There was no need for that at all.
I don’t understand how criticisms of Soros equates to anti-semitism, though, and think we cheapen the term when it’s thrown around so casually. There is nothing in the links to show that Orban holds any negative views towards Jews or that any of his government’s policies target Jews in any way. Based on the EU’s own survey on anti-semitism (https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2018-experiences-and-perceptions-of-antisemitism-survey_en.pdf), Hungary fared better than almost all other EU nations.
Thank you.
Orbán has filled key posts with vocal anti-Semites. He stripped two synagogues of their official status. Many groups have decried his use of Soros in anti-immigrant campaign ads. His party likes to point to data like those you provided, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t personally anti-Semitic. I think the evidence is pretty damning that he is.
Is the klawchat officially dead?
I don’t understand – I linked to this week’s Klawchat at the top of this post.
Sorry—I must’ve read right past that. I’ll check it out.