I had a weird lull over at The Athletic, as I didn’t really have games to hit or travel planned, so my scouting notebook from this week on Gerrit Cole, Franklin Arias, Ronny Cruz, and more was my first post in a couple of weeks. I’ll be back with at two pieces next week, including my first mock draft of 2026, tentatively scheduled to run on May 7th.
Over at AV Club, I reviewed the game Catan on the Road, and then spoke to designer Josh Wood about his upcoming game Let’s Go! To France, the sequel to the delightful Let’s Go! To Japan. The site shuttered its games section on Friday, so my regular reviews and writing there are done. I loved writing about games, so I’m open to freelance board game writing opportunities elsewhere.
I’m on Bluesky more than anything else right now. I’ve also been posting longer videos to Instagram and TikTok, talking about players I see or reacting to news.
I also appeared on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland to talk about Travis Bazzana, Chase Delauter, and other Guardians prospects/players.
I’ll work on another free email newsletter next.
And now, the links…
- Longreads first: North Carolina cop Scott Collins shot and killed Brandon Webster, a Black man, in 2019, and claimed self-defense. The Marshall Project finally got the truth, which includes the state never even bothering to investigate Collins’ rendition of events.
- What will it take to get rid of RFK Jr. as Secretary of “Health” and Human Services? Laura Weiss goes long on the topic for The New Republic, with quotes from Colette Delawalla, founder of Stand Up for Science and the subject of this profile. Meanwhile, Gregg Gonsalves writes in The Nation about “Vichy scientists” like Jay Bhattacharya who have chosen to collaborate with the anti-science Administration.
- Streetsblog found that Staten Island cop James Giovansanti racked up 547 speeding tickets and hasn’t been disciplined once. The Times picked up the story on Thursday in a longer piece on a bill aimed at stopping these so-called “super-speeders.”
- Residents of Roxbury, New Jersey, are fighting ICE’s efforts to build a concentration camp in their town.
- Is Jimmy Fallon accelerating the death of culture? I guess the question really is whether he’s a cause or a symptom.
- The President of Cornell ran his car over the foot of a protesting student and bumped another, then claimed they had attacked his car and blocked his exit. Student journalists at The Cornell Daily Sun obtained video of the incident and found that he made up that excuse.
- The University of Iowa created the Orwellian-titled Center for Intellectual Freedom, which just creates the problem it claims it’s trying to solve.
- A mother whose daughter died of SSPE, an incurable, fatal disorder caused by a past measles infection, wrote about the tragedy in The New York Times. The Times’ editorial board ran this editorial a few days later about how RFK Jr. and the Trump Republicans have created a terrifying new reality of preventable infectious diseases.
- This Administration is going after all kinds of rights. The FTC is ramping up to go after gender-affirming care in the continuing war on trans people. Trump and RFK Jr. are threatening the availability of contraception.
- The London Review of Books notes that the genocide in Gaza continues, and those who still live there face appalling conditions, with over 70,000 cases of rodent and ectoparasitic infestations just this year.
- Israel continues to attack journalists in Gaza and now Lebanon, killing Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and injuring her colleague last week in what appears to have been a deliberate act of murder – when the first airstrike didn’t kill her, they fired again.
- I posted this in the last roundup but I’m re-upping here after the sanitizing biopic Michael made so much money last weekend: Tim Grierson writes about the now-unavailable documentary Leaving Neverland and how impossible it is to forget the clear accusations against Michael Jackson that documentary laid out.
- Janet Mills’ withdrawal from the Maine Senate race makes Graham Platner the presumptive Democratic nominee. A Maine reporter and former classmate of Platner’s writes about his appeal.
- Texas Tech, a public university, has issued a ban on any discussion of LGBTQ+ topics by professors or even by students in their work. The American Historical Association announced their opposition to the policy, which, in a normal world, would be thrown out as a clear violation of the First Amendment. In Inside Higher Ed, Prof. Ben Wright at the University of Texas-Dallas writes that people need to stop criticizing professors who stay at these schools to fight the crackdown.
- It’s not a normal world, of course, as six judicial activists on the Supreme Court sounded the death knell for American democracy, writes Moira Donegan in The Guardian.
- Louisiana Republicans aren’t just trying to gerrymander Black citizens out of their franchise – they’re also trying to eliminate an elected position so a Black man can’t take office.
- In more free-speech-for-me-not-for-thee news, Utah Valley (corrected) caved to a right-wing political campaign that included Senator Mike Lee (R, of course) to disinvite speaker Sharon McMahon … over McMahon quoting Charlie Kirk’s own words after his death.
- New gas-powered data centers could dump more climate-warming gases into the air than entire nations.
- The Verge looked at how tech bros have lost touch with what people actually want.
- The U.S. government is running fake-news sites in Arabic and Farsi to push pro-American views in the Middle East.
- I missed this from last fall, but Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), currently running for Governor of South Carolina, tweeted at a Jewish Congresswoman “I have a good surgeon if you ever want to get your nose done.”
- Republicans in Indiana have succeeded again in making it harder for college students to vote.
- We love Quince in this house, for their cashmere sweaters (my god they are warm) and many other things. Bloomberg looked at why they’ve been so successful.
- A reader passed along this Times story on the hot resale market for La Marzocco espresso machines.
- A tiny bit of good news: Over 400 new independent bookstores opened in the U.S. in 2025, an increase of 31% from 2024.
- Mixed-use complexes are the hot new(ish) stadium funding scam that built the Battery in not-Atlanta. The Rays’ new owner is trying to run the same playbook, but economist J.C. Bradbury writes that Cobb County hasn’t seen the promised benefits.
- I had no idea that English used to have pronouns to refer to exactly two people, whether it was in the sense of us, you, or them.
- Allplay has a new Kickstarter up for River Valley Jewelcraft, a ‘spiritual sequel’ to River Valley Glassworks and Things in Rings.
- I’ve never played Kohaku, but there’s a Kickstarter up for a reprint and new expansion.
- MENSA does some annual board game awards that are probably the only thing MENSA does that’s worth noting; you can see this year’s winners here over on Board Game Wire.
COVID ushered in a new era of eugenic engineering. As it turns out, a lot of people will accept a higher risk to themselves of contracting an infectious disease if they believe that, by way of differences in group behaviors and access to health care remedies, outgroups will suffer disproportionately. They’re wrong about the first half of the equation — black and brown people were shown to exhibit more stringent preventive measures against COVID,while white conservatives were the ones chafing at the impositions — so the second half will have to carry the day.
The Cornell story just makes me so angry. There isn’t even a pretense anymore that these presidents have any obligation to their students and faculty. As all of the above links make clear, our country is fucked up right now, but you’d hope our revered institutions would provide a refuge.
I recently had to cease my recurring donations to my alma mater over their own lack of spine and a canned PR response I received when I pressed them on it. I guess beyond being angry, I’m also just unfathomably sad.
Remember when Republicans had a monopoly on Nazi politicians?
In your opinion, what member of the Democrat party is a “Nazi politician”?
Mat Ji – I don’t want to speak for Brian, but something tells me it’s the guy who has a nazi tattoo. Just a hunch.
That was my assumption too. I’m not defending Platner, and I’m a realist (it’s him vs Susan Collins, who has been a disaster for women and our democracy), but I think the tattoo thing is an oversimplification of a complicated issue.
It definitely feels like an oversimplification of the issue. I’m just genuinely unsure of what policy takes he has that resemble those of Nazi Germany, but if they exist it would be helpful if Brian can identify them.
Thank you for the link to Tim Grierson’s article. I live in Japan and “Leaving Neverland” is available on Netflix here and has been for several years. Is that not true for Netflix in the U.S.?
Was disappointed in AVC cutting off additional games coverage. As a huge fan and member of the commentariat, their Gameological arm was my place back in the day, and i signed up for the AVC membership this year to back their efforts with cash Such a bummer to lose some of the coverage I specifically want to support.
Thanks for shining a light on important stories as well, as grim as they are. It’s important to know.
It was Utah Valley University, not Utah State, that disinvited the speaker.
Thanks. Some folks put up billboards supporting her near the school.
One day, assuming that all of your postings are not deleted due to government censorship, your stick to baseball posts will be a great record of the fall of America over the last 15 years.
We were all rightfully outraged when we found out about Hegseth’s white supremacist tattoos. We rightfully dismissed his absurd excuses that it had to do with military culture so I think it’s ridiculous that so many are giving Platner a free pass for the same thing. I know several people who have been in “dark places” and struggled with depression, including other vets; none of them have any SS tattoos. There is a growing strain of anti-Semitism in the far left fringes of our party and this doesn’t help the optics.
Yes, it would be awesome for Susan Collins to lose but he strikes me as quite gross. And not sure why we think a guy who has said this is going to be a champion for women: “Rape is a real thing, if you’re so worried about it to buy Kevlar underwear you’d think you might not get blacked out f—-d up around people you aren’t comfortable with,” and stated that people should “act like an adult.” (And for the record I donated heavily to Sara Gideon in 2020 to try and unseat Collins.)
Avoiding getting blacked out drunk around people we don’t know well is good life advice, but that’s a separate conversation that has no business being mentioned in a conversation about rape.
@FrankJones and it’s not lost on me that Bernie has given Platner his full-throated support given the disgusting misogyny the Bernie Bros have been peddling since 2016.
Is this “growing strain of antisemitism” or “disgusting misogyny” in the room with us? Less snarkily, I fail to see how a political strain whose most prominent leaders are a Jewish guy and a half-dozen female reps demonstrate anything of the sort.
Oh the “I have Black friends” defense. Even AOC said in her book that she was worried about endorsing Bernie in 2020 because his supporters were “verry, very damaging to him.” She also expressed concerns about the “misogyny within the Left and how the Squad was treated”! Elizabeth Warren had to ask Bernie to explain why his supporters released private information on women in the Nevada Culinary Workers Union Local 226 after they criticized his health policies. There’s no point in detailing all the awful things that were said about Hillary in 2016 and Kamala in 2024.
Ignoring the anti-Semitism on the Left doesn’t make it go away. Are you going to tell me that Hasan Piker, an influential voice on the far Left, hasn’t expressed anti-Semitic views to his followers? How about when BLM chapters use pictures of hang gliders in their “pro-Palestinian” literature? Or when an Ivy League professor describes the rape of Jewish women by Hamas as “exhilarating”? Do you truly believe that none of the growing pro-Palestinian movement is tainted by anti-Semitism?
Or when an Ivy League professor describes the rape of Jewish women by Hamas as “exhilarating”
ehhhhh … that’s not what Russell Rickford said. Here’s the truth, which is bad enough, and for which he apologized and took a leave of absence for a year (rather than face suspension, I imagine).
“BLM chapters?” Plural?? No, one, a reprehensible post they deleted.
Piker is the most online thing going. Most people have no idea who he is, and while he might influence some potential voters, he has far less influence in the real world than the terminally online think he does.
You’re cherrypicking very specific examples of people doing bad things in a group of millions. Of course there will be bad actors in any population over about a dozen.
Sure, some pro-Palestinian people have that view because they’re antisemitic. Some pro-Israel people – many of whom claim to ‘love’ Jesus Christ – have that view because they hate Muslims and/or brown people. (I have some unfortunate news for them about Jesus.) Let’s not use the worst parts of any movement to tar the larger group.
I specifically mentioned that the anti-Semitism was in the “far Left fringes of the party,” where, it seems, we would both put Piker. I think dismissing it out of hand is careless, especially since there are opinion polls showing that Jewish voters are concerned about it as well. We’ve all seen firsthand how quickly fringe opinions can be incorporated into mainstream political messaging.
“Oh the “I have Black friends” defense”
That framing just doesn’t apply when we’re talking about a political tendency/movement that is both made up of and led by people who are disproportionately women or minorities, and I think you know that
“Nevada Culinary Workers Union Local 226 after they criticized his health policies”
This is a very funny way to frame corrupt union leadership opposing M4A because they want to keep lining their pockets with the proceeds of administering their own plan
“Are you going to tell me that Hasan Piker, an influential voice on the far Left, hasn’t expressed anti-Semitic views to his followers?”
Yes, I am going to tell you that. Broadly speaking, the “antisemitism crisis” is a fiction created of the powerful and their media apparatus that seeks to smear righteous opposition to Israel as “antisemitism.” And keep in mind that the same exact apparatus is currently engaging in some of the most obvious and shameful antisemitism I have seen (https://x.com/benphillips76/status/2051909751076975056) against a Jewish politician for having the temerity to oppose the country who weaponizes his heritage to justify genocide. Who do you really think opposes antisemitism here?
I also want to say that, while I appreciate the general sentiment, I am not understanding what is “reprehensible” or “bad” about the two examples you shared Keith. I think it is generally good to be “exhilarated” by freedom fighters in real time. We rightfully celebrate Nat Turner, John Brown, the Warsaw Ghetto, etc now, but I think it’s important to not just hold up idealized icons from the past, but to realize those same axes of struggle in the present. The struggle of the Palestinians is IMO *the* righteous struggle of our time and it’s important to not let the smears from the powerful (which were also present for all the examples I shared) prevent us from supporting, and yes, celebrating them. I’ll finish with this: one thing that struck me in reading the article about the professor was how the people involved understood this in real time. I ask those of us who support the oppressed to not let the distance of time obscure the righteousness of the cause.
“So far, a petition supporting Rickford has gathered over 1,200 signatures, according to the form. The petition to reprimand Rickford for his remarks has gathered 467 signatures, according to Zoe Bernstein ’24, the president of Cornellians for Israel.”