Two new posts this week at the Athletic, one looking at the top 25 prospects just for potential 2025 impact, and another draft scouting notebook from my trip to San Diego, looking at Tyler Bremner, Gavin Fien, and Nick Dumesnil.
Over at Paste, I reviewed the game Harvest, a big update to a smaller-box game of the same name from the defunct publisher Tasty Minstrel Games. I’m a huge fan of the new version.
I keep pushing back another issue of my free email newsletter because I’ve been writing so much other stuff, but it’ll come … soon. No promises, though.
And now, the links…
- The Administration appears to be on the verge of firing anyone who’s LGBTQ+ (and out) in the federal government.
- And they’ve already begun the process of banning trans people from obtaining visas to enter the United States. The absolute war on this tiny, highly vulnerable population should make everyone nauseous. It is just evil.
- I’m embarrassed to say I did not know that many counties charge prison inmates “lodging fees” or “room and board” or some other bullshit – even if the convictions were later overturned. Pennsylvania’s Dauphin County has not only ended this practice, but forgiven over $65 million in such debts “owed” by past prisoners.
- COVID-19 began with zoonotic spillover, but from what species? An increasing body of evidence points to raccoon dogs, which, come on, they just sound like trouble.
- An unvaccinated child died from measles in Texas, the first death in the ongoing measles outbreak there that resulted from high vaccine-denialism rates there. The measles vaccine, part of the MMR shot, is extremely effective in preventing illness, and even if you survive a measles infection you can die years later from an incurable, degenerative neurological condition called SSPE.
- So of course West Virginia is trying to weaken its vaccination requirements for schoolchildren, spurring this editorial in MetroNews arguing against this dangerous bill.
- Meanwhile, RFK Jr. is already implementing his vaccine-denialist views, pausing an effort to develop a new COVID-19 vaccine and cancelling a critical meeting to help develop next season’s flu vaccines.
- Three western Attorneys General are going to hold a series of town halls to highlight how these mass firings and funding freezes are affecting Americans. This should be happening everywhere, in every blue state, at least.
- That Mississippi town (Clarksdale) that sued a local paper to force them to remove an editorial they didn’t like backed down under public pressure, withdrawing their lawsuit.
- The current Supreme Court is very friendly to states that want to kill prisoners, but they issued a surprising ruling in one recent case of an Oklahoma man who wasn’t even accused of killing anyone and where the prosecutors withheld critical evidence.
- Indiana Republicans are trying to ban the use of student IDs for voting, because the youths won’t vote for fascism! Remember, voter fraud isn’t a thing.
- Captives freed from Myanmar scam centers – where pig-butchering and other phishing text & call scams originate – are now living in dire conditions in makeshift camps along the Myanmar-Thai border.
- Pinterest is the latest site to be overrun by AI slop, according to this report from Futurism. AI-generated recipes, decorating tips, etc. are all over the site, drawing readers back to sites full of junk ads.