Stick to baseball, 11/18/23.

I offered my opinions of the Aaron Bummer and Cal Quantrill trades for subscribers to the Athletic. That Jake Bauers trade really didn’t move the needle, but I’ll probably include a thought or two on the Vidal Bruján trade when we get another one so I can include it in a longer column.

On my podcast this week, I spoke with film critic Matt Singer about his new book Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever. You can listen and subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I appeared on Seattle’s 710 AM to discuss the Mariners’ possible offseason moves and the challenge of competing in the AL West in 2024.

My free email newsletter has returned, as I sent out a fresh edition last night, my second one this month.

And now, the links…

• ProPublica looks at how two women died on the property of an Alaska Mayor, but no one’s ever been arrested or charged – even though they were both involved with the now ex-mayor’s sons, who both had histories of domestic violence.
• Colorado banned forced labor in its prisons in 2018, but prisoners in the state are still being punished for refusing work assignments, according to an investigation from Bolts magazine.
• The BBC has a great piece on the (im)possibility of time travel on the eve of the new season of Doctor Who.
• Trump laid out some very autocratic aims if he’s elected in 2024. The New York Times looked at his plans for mass deportations and concentration camps for undocumented migrants. The Washington Post also looked at the same, as Greg Sargent refers to the “brutal reality” of the next election. And Axios has some details on Trump’s plan to install loyalists throughout the federal government, called Project 2025 and developed by the right-wing Heritage Foundation.
• Elon Musk endorsed what amounts to a “Great Replacement Theory” tweet, leading IBM, Apple, and others to pause advertising on X.com. Full disclosure: As of this morning, my employer is still advertising on the site.
• Delaware Lt. Governor Bethany Hall-Long, one of two declared Democratic candidates for our gubernatorial race, has been caught up in a possible scandal around over $200,000 in campaign payments to her husband. She has claimed that it’s a repayment of a personal loan to the campaign.
• Police in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, a city right next to Albuquerque, responded to a home there where a woman said her caretaker was threatening to kill her. The police complimented the caretaker on his guns, one of which he used a few hours later to kill the woman in his care. It appears the police chief is saying his officers did nothing wrong.
• Ohio Republicans suffered two huge losses on Election Day ballot questions, so now they’re pledging to defy the will of the people by stripping the judiciary of its powers, prompting Toledo entrepreneur Pete Kadens to write that Ohio is the most antidemocratic state in the country.
• I posted a link a few weeks ago to the New York/ProPublica investigation into serial abuser Dr. Robert Hadden of Columbia University; the school has now set up a $100 million compensation fund and begun contacting his former patients, a turnaround from the school’s past attempts to act like they knew nothing of his crimes and bore no responsibility to his patients. Hadden was convicted of multiple sexual assaults in January and is serving a 20-year sentence.
• No matter what you read on the internet, incidents of sudden cardiac death in college athletes have declined over the last twenty years.
• A school in Iowa had to pay for increased security after a single teacher there posted a joke that Chaya Raichik, who posts as “LibsOfTikTok,” then shared to her 2.6 million followers with a tag identifying the school district.
• Murfreesboro, Tennessee, home to Middle Tennessee State University, passed an ordinance banning any public displays of homosexual behavior. The ACLU is already challenging it. MTSU hosts the state’s oldest LGBTQ+ student organization, MT Lambda, but I guess those kids just can’t step off campus.
• The Atlantic looks at the plight of firstborn daughters, who are expected to be caregivers and to be high achievers in many cultures.
• Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Boyer resigned as poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine.
• You should read this wonderful obituary of New Orleans resident Virginia Jane Smith, who died this month at age 98 and survived Hurricane Katrina by living for a week off boiled eggs, water, and whiskey. As the headline says, may her memory be a blessing.