Stick to baseball, 10/26/24.

I spent last week in the Arizona Fall League and filed three scouting notebooks, one with some initial observations, a second was all about pitching, and a last one that wrapped up a bunch of additional position players.

I sent out another issue of my free email newsletter this week; with Twitter increasingly overrun with misinformation and white nationalists, I’m there less and less, and the newsletter or one of the Twitter alternatives (Threads, Bluesky) are better ways to keep up with my work.

I appeared on All Things Considered’s Weekend Edition on NPR to preview the World Series (before the LCS actually ended!) and then did the same on NBC Morning News yesterday. One of my tweets made this SI roundup of people mocking former Reds infielder Zack Cozart’s incredible ignorance.

And now, the links…

• Longreads first: Archconservative billionaire Leonard Leo’s ongoing effort to take over the American judiciary might bankrupt Planned Parenthood and gut women’s health care in the U.S. This Guardian report looks at the long tentacles of Leo’s judicial network, and how he’s managed to tilt the scales of justice in his favor.

• A far-right Texas judge has shown other reactionaries a playbook for how to consolidate power and use local government to push their agendas, even in a purple county like Tarrant.

• Two stories from ProPublica: Arizona’s school voucher program is supposed to help low-income families, but they’re not the ones using the vouchers – it’s wealthy parents doing so. A claimed lack of prosecutors in Anchorage is leading to dozens of cases, some involving serious crimes like domestic violence or child abuse, being dismissed without trial. Other dismissed cases include 270 people arrested for suspected DUI.

• The Washington Post explains how the Russian-backed head of the International Boxing Association roiled the Olympics with the bogus “scandal” over the identities of two female boxers. Meanwhile, a Russian propaganda unit spread a false story smearing Tim Walz, and the conservative ecosystem ate it up without bothering to fact-check it (again, it’s false). WIRED has more on Russia’s disinfo machine, including how it is threatening democracy in tiny Moldova, where Putin has supported a separatist movement for decades.

• Thanks to Arizona’s 15-week abortion ban, a pregnant woman who learned at 18 weeks that her fetus had a very high likelihood of spina bifida had to travel to Las Vegas for an abortion and ended up recovering in a casino hotel room. Abortion is health care.

• This week in Bad Decisions: a doctor leading a large study on transgender youth said she didn’t publish her research findings because the results might be weaponized by anti-trans forces – which, of course, got out, and was promptly weaponized by anti-trans forces, even though the key quote here is this: “Puberty blockers did not lead to mental health improvements, (the doctor) said, most likely because the children were already doing well when the study began.” It’s also news that the children on puberty blockers didn’t get worse. Regardless of the results, her decision to withhold the results hasn’t helped anyone at all.

• A Florida judge ruled that that state’s letters threatening TV stations that aired ads supporting a November abortion rights ballot question were unconstitutional – and he called Florida officials “stupid” for trying it.

• A Black man alleges that Michigan police racially profiled him and tried to plant drugs on him during a traffic stop.

• Phoenix police tased and punched a deaf Black man who has cerebral palsy – and now he’s the one charged with aggravated assault. They targeted the man based on a false tip.

• Israel threatened a Palestinian teen reporter, telling him to stop filming in Gaza, and when he didn’t, they killed him.

• A Palestinian man whose wife and children burned to death in a tent hit by an Israeli missile asks why the West sees their suffering and yet stays silent. Related: Israel’s assault on Gaza is happening with weapons made in the United States.

• Elon Musk’s gambit of a lottery to try to drum up support for Trump may run afoul of U.S. election law. Of course, it doesn’t matter because he’s rich and the government doesn’t seem to have any desire to hold the rich accountable for their crimes. The Philly Inquirer has more on Musk’s campaigning in the state.

• Three red states are suing again to try to limit access to mifepristone, a drug used in medical abortions, despite the recent Supreme Court ruling – and they’re going to the same rogue judge in Texas who sided with them the first time. If you live in Missouri, Kansas, or Idaho, is this where you want your tax dollars going?

• The editorials page editor of the Los Angeles Times resigned after the paper’s owner blocked the editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris for President; two more members of the board followed her lead. The Washington Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, blocked his paper from doing the same. Are these outlets doing so out of fear of retaliation from Trump? It sure looks like “anticipatory obedience” – kowtowing to the whims of a would-be autocrat before he’s even in power.

• On the other end of the spectrum, the Boston Globe wrote about the clear signs of Trump’s cognitive decline and asked why the press isn’t holding him to the same standard they used for President Biden?

• Trump praises Hitler and his sycophants rush to excuse it.

• Tens of thousands of Christian nationalists went to DC for an anti-trans rally hosted by a self-styled “apostle” and former multi-level marketing hawker – and they held it on Yom Kippur, no less.

• Another day, another church leader charged with sexually abusing children. No trans people or drag queens here.

• A SuperPAC affiliated with Trump sent out mailers that looked like Medicare cancellation notices to try to scare older voters from voting for VP Kamala Harris.

• The Central Park 5 are suing Trump again after he defamed them during the Presidential debate.

• The country of Georgia is also heading for a pivotal election, and the pro-Russian incumbent may still win a plurality, with fears rising of actual election fraud.

• The Times has an interview with author Susanna Clarke, who just released a new short story called The Wood at Midwinter, set in the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

• Defector’s Neil deMause writes about what a bad deal the proposed downtown arena for the 76ers will be for Philadelphia, on top of destroying what’s left of historic Chinatown.

• Stanford held a conference on the pandemic that was full of grifters and purveyors of misinformation.

• The hypothesis that Barnard’s Star, the second-closest star to our own, might have a planet orbiting it dates back at least to when I was a little kid. Now there might actually be some proof.

• Japandroids just released their fourth and final album, Fate & Alcohol, eight days ago. Drummer David Prowse talked to Kerrang! about the ten songs that changed his life.

• A new Kickstarter from Bitewing Games has raised over $200K for three new games from the master designer Reiner Knizia.

• The Onion’s Point/Counterpoint this week: We Need To Take Trump’s Rhetoric Seriously, But Not Literally vs. Have That Guy Killed.