My fourth and (almost) final mock draft is now up for subscribers to The Athletic, as is my final Big Board ranking the top 100 prospects, and scouting reports on 36 more guys outside of that list. I held a short Klawchat on Thursday, and will do Q&As on the Athletic’s site Sunday and Monday. I’ll also have a Futures Game recap on the site on Sunday morning.
Let’s get right to the links this time…
- First, an update. The story I linked to here a few weeks ago about a 10-year-old girl who had to travel from Ohio to Indiana to get a medical procedure made illegal in Ohio was further confirmed this week with the arrest of her rapist – and Fox News didn’t take it well. Also, the Ohio Attorney General, who was one of the most vocal denialists around this story, has some explaining to do.
- Longreads: Eater ran a massive three-part series on abusive work conditions and misleading claims at Dan Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns, long praised as one of the leaders in sustainable eating. There are also posts about how the operations on the farm may not be what they portray themselves to be, and have been handed over to some extent to corporate interests.
- TikTok is full of medical misinformation, so now some creators are fighting back with debunking videos (and a dose of mockery).
- A consortium of 15 developing countries is trying to address the inequity of vaccine distribution between the developed world and everywhere else.
- The Guardian looks at the broken promises – or perhaps lies – of the London Olympics’ organizers, such as promising 30-40,000 new units of affordable housing would be built around the Olympic Park. There’s fewer than half that many new units, and they’re not all affordable. The event has led to huge taxpayer losses as well, while Tory leaders, including Boris Johnson, moved some of the goalposts to try to say they hit their targets.
- A right-wing think tank has rebranded itself as a church, ostensibly to avoid IRS scrutiny. We should just tax all religious organizations and close this loophole entirely.
- There is a huge disparity in maternal mortality between Black mothers and everyone else. The Philadelphia Inquirer looks at the historical roots of this gap, which trace back to Philly’s maternity wards.
- The Proud Boys nationalist group is behind the rise in harassment and violence of advocates for reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights.
- A Capitol Police officer who was injured on January 6th says President Trump betrayed him.
- A man in Arizona is suing the clinic that gave his now ex-wife an abortion four years ago. The embryo was at just seven weeks’ gestation, yet the lawsuit is claiming “wrongful death.”
- The Idaho Republican Party is considering a resolution to reject the results of the 2020 election.
- The anti-LGBTQ+ book-banning movement is leading to online harassment and doxing of school teachers, possibly driving some of them out of their careers.
- Not too dissimilar from how the Vinton Public Library in Iowa just lost its entire staff.
- The author of Texas’s law stripping women of their reproductive rights wants to ban the HIV-prevention regime PReP, claiming it “leads to homosexual behavior.”
- Pregnant women can’t get divorced in Missouri. This seems like a very, very bad law for women.
- I’ve seen numerous references to a full-page ad placed by Hobby Lobby calling for a Christian government in the United States. They did place an ad similar to that, but it was a year ago, and that’s not exactly what it says.
- Most Texas and Florida residents believe that teens should receive gender-affirming care if they need it.
- A trans man in Ohio alleges that he was assaulted for using the women’s bathroom as required by law – a law that, of course, is designed to do anything but protect trans people.
- An editorial in the Tennessean calls out that state’s governor for his lack of support of public education.
- The Bracken County, Kentucky, Republican Party posted an anti-Semitic rant attacking the new head of the ATF, blaming his confirmation on a “Jewish junta.”
- Slate had a piece on Republican moms apologizing to their liberal daughters in the wake of SCOTUS revoking a woman’s right to choose … but this all seems a little feel-good smarmy, no? I think most recent Republican voters knew fully what they were voting for.
- In “saying the quiet part out loud” news, the Arizona Department of Corrections Director said that some communities would “collapse” without the cheap prison labor the state provides, if you still had any doubts about the integrity of the carceral state.
- A new GLAAD report calls out TikTok and Facebook, among other sites, for failing to combat harassment of LGBTQ+ people.
- Board game news: Leviathan Wilds, the first game from Moon Crab Games, founded by former Asmodee employees, has two weeks left on Kickstarter and is about 80% funded.
- Renegade Games announced pre-orders for Wayfarers of the South Tigris, another Shem Phillips game in the vein of Raiders of the North Sea.
The Ohio story is instructive because it brings out some awful truths about abortion that conservatives don’t want to accept. If you ban abortion without exceptions, you’re saying a kid can be forced to carry a pregnancy to term even though legally they can’t consent (especially a 10 year old) to having sex. You’re saying a rape victim should be forced to carry even though her body was violated. You’re saying that the woman’s health doesn’t matter even though she’s the actual person. It’s also why they flailed so hard when the Ohio story came out. Once these stories come out, it’s kind of argue that pandora’s box hasn’t been unleashed and the unintended consequences are awful. Just wait until an AG in a state like Texas or Oklahoma tries to prosecute a rape victim for having an abortion or the doctor in question.
And the Missouri law is beyond awful. Wouldn’t it hypothetically encourage a theoretically violate husband to impregnate his wife without her consent in order to ensure she couldn’t divorce and get away from him? These are real life consequences that the Dems need to throw in the face of the conservative absolutists on this issue. These things could happen to your daughter, your sister, your niece, your wife, your granddaughter, etc.
A small but important point: you referred to the person under arrest in Ohio as a “rapist.” You should refer to him as an “alleged rapist”– not because there is any doubt that the young girl was raped, and not to lend credence to the bogus claims that the story of the girl’s abortion was fabricated– but because respect for due process should afford any charged person with the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, in a court of law but also in the court of public opinion. Yes, it has been reported that the suspect confessed, but false confessions are more common than we’d expect– I’m sure you’ve linked to examples of individuals exonerated after confessions were found to be coerced before– and the reports of the suspect’s confession are almost certainly from law-enforcement sources that may or may not be reliable.
Looks like the Leviathan Wilds kickstarter was cancelled, and an explanation is provided in the project updates. Looking forward to this game when they decide to re-launch.
The GOP’s solution to the situation they’ve put American women through as it relates to abortion is to retroactively put rapists behind bars before they rape. A wise person once told me to never share your opinion about something until you fully understand the opposing view better than the opposition does. People like Jim Jordan and that Ohio AG simply refuse to do that and it’s maddening. There is a real solution to this problem and its so clear to anyone with a functioning brain. They’ll go on TV and create doubt that a situation occurred, but the truth is even if it HADN’T, they’ve created a policy where it COULD, and now DID. These people are evil.
Yost has turned out to be a real disappointment. After years of showing up as a Reasonable Republican when he was Ohio’s state auditor, his stint as AG has been marked by partisanship and unforced errors like this.
Hi Keith – Curious, do you think private schools and universities should enjoy tax exemption?