police — Page 4

→ April 16, 2022
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 4/16/22.

For subscribers to the Athletic, I had one new post this week, a roundup of top 2022 draft prospects I’ve seen, including Druw Jones, Termarr Johnson, and the now-injured Dylan Lesko.

Over at Paste, I reviewed Cascadia, one of the best new games of 2021, from the same publisher as Calico. It’s another hex tile-laying game but simpler to learn and play, with variable rules you can fine-tune to allow kids to join.

My own podcast returned with the Productive Outs guys – Ian Miller of Kowloon Walled City and Riley Breckenridge of Thrice – as guests. You can subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I’m due for another issue my free email newsletter this upcoming week. You can find both of my books, Smart Baseball and The Inside Game, in paperback anywhere books are sold, including Bookshop.org.

And now, the links…

Longreads first: Child welfare workers in Texas are resigning rather than enforce the state’s hateful law denying medical treatment to trans kids.

Vanity Fair has a long investigative piece on EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that has been at the center of the discredited lab-leak hypothesis, showing how EHA’s leader, Peter Daszak, made the situation worse both before the pandemic began and after the search for SARS-CoV-2’s origins began.

Firearms have surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of deaths for U.S. children and adolescents.

Writing in the New Yorker, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Elizabeth Kolbert writes about how two Florida lakes are suing to stop a development that would destroy nearly 2000 acres of wetlands. The lawsuit includes one actual human, as well as a marsh and a stream, and is the first of its kind in the U.S.

The CEO of Flutterwave, a Nigerian online payments and financial services company with a $3 billion valuation, may have engaged in fraud and insider trading to enrich himself at the expense of shareholders and employees with stock options.

The Texas Observer, a progressive investigative journalism magazine that had a particular focus on Indigenous affairs, lost most of its staff in the last six months due to a series of bungled situations and a divide over the periodical’s mission.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) worked to try to overturn the 2020 Presidential election, according to texts he sent to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Biologist David Sabatini resigned his tenured professorship at MIT after three senior officials at the school recommended revoking it in the wake of sexual harassment allegations against him and concerns over his behavior towards other members of his lab. He is still, however, suing one of the women who has accused him of harassment.

David French writes in The Atlantic that the American right has “lost the plot” on free speech.

The British national who killed MP Sir David Amess was a “textbook example of radicalization” who started reading extremist propaganda online during the Syria conflict.

The cops who shoved a 75-year-old man to the ground for protesting were cleared of all wrongdoing. Because of course they were.

Meanwhile, a panel on the Fifth Circuit of the US Court of Appeals ruled that police who tortured a teenage girl in custody didn’t violate her rights.

Former St. Louis police officer Luther Hall, who was beaten by his fellow officers while working undercover during protests in the city in 2017, spoke out about his desire to leave the city and the lack of justice for his attackers.

There’s very strong evidence that the Epstein-Barr virus causes multiple sclerosis, although why some infected people develop the autoimmune disorder and others don’t isn’t clear.

Why aren’t Democrats doing anything to combat the GOP’s deranged claims that Democrats are all pedophiles and groomers?

South Dakota AG Jason Ravsnborg, who killed a man in a hit-and-run accident, may face consequences after all as the Republican-led legislature has voted to impeach him.

Texas is a shitshow in so many ways. Gov. Greg Abbott’s political stunt at the border has led truckers to demand that he stop inspections of every truck, a move he put in place due to baseless claims about border security. For a party that claims to be pro-business, this is a hell of a way to show it.

Climate change is contributing to the spread of Japanese encephalitis in Australia.

Techdirt decries major newspapers’ continuing failure to grasp social media.

Opinion journalism is beset by structural problems and bad actors. There are ways to fix both of these issues, from better labeling of opinion vs. news pieces to proper editing (in a world where most publications have reduced editorial staff substantiall).

Ukrainian hackers have published a tremendous amount of personal data on Russian troopse fighting in the current war, as have other activists seeking additional ways to fight back against Russia’s pointless invasion of its neighbor.

The Titans’ new state-funded stadium will cost about $2 billion, and the economic impact figures the team has given the legislature appear to have been created out of thin air. Great use of public funds in a state that offers below-average education to its citizens.

A Toronto man amassed a huge cache of guns and killed two men at random before his arrest, which may have prevented a mass shooting given the arsenal he had in his apartment.

Board game news: Birds of a Feather is back on Kickstarter, and while it’s clearly meant to capitalize on Wingspan’s runaway success, it’s also a much lighter game aimed at a different audience.

The newest game from publishers Lucky Duck Games (Chronicles of Crime) to hit Kickstarter is The Dark Quarter, a co-op narrative game set in New Orleans.

Postmark Games has a print-and-play game called Voyages that just requires you to bring your own dice.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: board game news, climate change, coronavirus, environment, frauds, health, links, longreads, metoo, police, south dakota, stick to baseball, tennessee, texas

→ April 10, 2022
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 4/10/2022.

I had two posts for subscribers to the Athletic this past week, my annual MLB season predictions post, which never fails to rile up people who don’t read the intro despite all the disclaimers I issue, and a draft scouting notebook that covered a slew of likely first-rounders, including Brooks Lee.

Over at Paste, I reviewed the trick-taking game Shamans, which is semi-cooperative, as at least one player in every round is a saboteur working against the others. I think it’s a better version of The Crew, a straight cooperative trick-taking game that won the Kennerspiel des Jahres award a few years ago.

I sent out a new edition of my free email newsletter this past week. You can find both of my books, Smart Baseball and The Inside Game, in paperback anywhere books are sold, including Bookshop.org. My podcast will return shortly – travel has made it difficult for me to find windows to record the last couple of weeks.

And now, the links…

A former assistant attorney general in Arizona has spent decades helping that state craft some of the most punitive laws against people convicted of crimes, including drug offenses and other non-violent crimes, even though he’s never held elected office. Arizona’s population isn’t this conservative as a whole, but the far right has the state government in a stranglehold.
Brett Favre used his name and influence to steer Mississippi state welfare funds to his pet projects, and may have profited from one.
This New Yorker review of Fintan O’Toole’s new book We Don’t Know Ourselves looks at how Ireland freed itself from the pernicious influence of the Catholic Church. We could learn from them.
Humans are one of the only species that menstruates, but there’s relatively little research and treatment for the pain and discomfort it causes. That may be changing, along with a new hypothesis on why we’re one of the very few species to experience it.
The ivermectin grift has completely fallen apart after more studies showed it’s useless against COVID-19, although the grifters haven’t given up just yet.
More idiots on the right keep falling for the myth of “furries” in schools.
The Justice Department has finally told states that they shouldn’t deny gender-affirming medical care to trans kids. These hateful laws, pandering to the religious right, are just going to increase suicide attempts among kids who are already at higher risk for it.
The Chief of Adolescent Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital estimated that Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law may lead to 4000 new suicide attempts per year in that state alone. Now more red states are pushing these bigoted bills. If you live in any of these states, have you called your state rep and senator, and the governor, to express your views on the bills?
Abigail Disney wrote an editorial urging her grandfather’s company to stand up for love and acceptance.
Entrepreneur Rhian Beulter shared a personal story of acceptance from her childhood.
Sending social workers rather than cops to low-level mental health or intoxication-related 911 calls in Denver has kept police out of over 2000 such incidents. It saves money and it saves lives.
The mass of the W boson may be higher than theory predicted, which would require changes to the standard model – although this new result isn’t final.
25^th Century Games will publish a new (third?) edition of Reiner Knizia’s classic game Ra, launching on Gamefound in the next few weeks.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: arizona, board game news, disney, florida, ireland, lgbt rights, links, longreads, mental health, mississippi, police, stick to baseball

→ February 19, 2022
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 2/19/22.

My prospects ranking package is now all posted for subscribers to the Athletic. Here’s the complete rundown of everything that ran:

The top 100 prospects
The prospects who just missed the top 100
The ranking of all 30 farm systems
The org top 20s:

Baltimore	Houston	Chicago Cubs
Boston	LA Angels	Cincinnati
NY Yankees	Oakland	Milwaukee
Tampa Bay	Seattle	Pittsburgh
Toronto	Texas	St. Louis
Chicago White Sox	Atlanta	Arizona
Cleveland	Miami	Colorado
Detroit	NY Mets	LA Dodgers
Kansas City	Philadelphia	San Diego
Minnesota	Washington	San Francisco

I also did two Q&As over at the Athletic, one the day the farm rankings went up and one the day the top 100 went up.

Since my last stick to baseball post, I’ve reviewed several board games over at Paste as well, including Nidavellir, one of my favorite games from 2021; Equinox, a new version of Reiner Knizia’s game Colossal Arena; The Rocketeer: Fate of the Future, a two-player game based on the 1991 cult classic; and Wilson & Shep, a cute bluffing game for players as young as five.

I’ve done a bunch of podcasts and radio things related to the top 100, including the Seattle Sports Union; the Update with Adam Copeland (talking Giants prospects); Press Box Online (Orioles); Sox Machine (White Sox); and Karraker & Smallmon (Cardinals).

My own podcast returned in late January, with three episodes since my last roundup: Michael Schur, author of How to Be Perfect and creator of the show The Good Place; the post-punk band Geese, an episode where I answered a bunch of reader questions on the top 100 too; and union labor lawyer Eugene Freedman, who gave his thoughts on the MLB lockout. You can subscribe via iTunes, Stitcher, amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And now, the links…

Longreads first: There is no evidence that wearing masks in school harms children’s mental health or educational development. None. I’ll repeat: There is no fucking evidence, people. Every one of those anti-mask grifters you see on Twitter hawking their $80 a year substack is full of shit.
In 2003, a woman in Australia was convicted of smothering all four of her babies to death. Several researchers believe she is innocent, and that a mutant gene was the real cause of the tragedy.
MIT Technology Review has a very long piece on the scientist at the center of the lab-leak conspiracy theory.
The scourge of private equity is now causing rapid inflation in housing prices, with PE firms buying up apartment buildings, hiking rents, and skimping on or even forgoing basic services to tenants.
WIRED looks at how personal finance apps are making phone scams even easier.
The Harvard Gazette ran an excerpt from Kevin Birmingham’s 2014 book on Ulysses’ long and tortuous road to publication. I reviewed The Most Dangerous Book back in 2016.
MEL gives us the subterfuge behind the surprise pop hit “Tubthumping,” and how the anarcho-communist band Chumbawamba used its success for their own ends.
Are you getting cardboard shipping boxes from U-Line? Not only does the family that owns U-Line fund the far-right site The Federalist, they’ve given millions to other right-wing extremists, including some of January 6^th terrorists. If you use U-Line in your business, find another vendor. If you get a package in a U-Line box, contact the shipper and ask them to use someone else for their boxes.
Space elevators are a staple of hard science fiction novels and stories, but if one breaks, it’s a massive and potentially fatal disaster. The plot of Green Mars includes the sabotage of a space elevator, and while I don’t care for the novel, Kim Stanley Robinson does a reasonable job of getting the science right on what happens when the broken cable hits the ground.
REI sent this union-busting email to all of its employees, then published a podcast full of dubious rationalizations for its anti-union efforts.
The Washington Post profiled the woman who led the first successful effort to unionize a Starbucks store.
COVID-19 becoming “endemic” doesn’t mean it’s becoming harmless.
In fact, there’s evidence that the claims that the omicron variant is less severe than prior ones are due to greater population immunity, not to any reduced ability of the virus to cause serious illness. Also, there’s a subvariant of concern, too, although once again, vaccination confers substantial benefits.
COVID denialists on the right seem to think the virus is actually a person – at least in the language they use to minimize it.
Right-wing pundits, including Jordan Peterson, were up in arms because a Boston hospital denied a heart transplant to a man who refused the COVID-19 vaccines – but such rules are routine to increase the likelihood of the patient’s survival.
Anti-vaccine loon Christiane Northrup has become a major donor to Maine Republican candidates, including former Governor Paul LePage.
Two Long Island nurses have been charged with selling fake vaccine cards and entering the false information into vaccination databases, taking home $1.5 million in the process. But what happens to the people who bought them?
An inevitable consequence of all of this anti-vaccine misinformation is that now measles vaccination rates are falling in the UK.
Meanwhile, Republicans in 14 states are pushing bills that would block medical boards from censuring doctors who spread misinformation; in Tennessee, the Know-Nothings in the state legislature even pressured the medical board into removing language from its website discouraging such doctors.
Speaking of foundations of misinformation, Fox News was happy to talk to an anti-vax state trooper … until he died of COVID-19.
A New Jersey police officer was driving drunk when he struck a pedestrian … and then put the body in his car and drove home with it. He didn’t call 911. He now faces a dozen felony charges.
The story about the Los Angeles train robbery a few weeks ago, which made news across the country and even in Europe, is really about how Union Pacific laid off 4/5 of its security force – and how the mainstream media increasingly just buys whatever corporations are selling.
This is horrifying: San Francisco police used DNA from a woman’s rape kit to identify her as a suspect in another crime. And we wonder why women don’t come forward to report their assaults. I’ve already reached out to two state Senators in Delaware, and to the Attorney General, to see what can be done to make sure this does not occur here.
Over 650 Philly cops who claim they’re too sick or injured to work are fine holding down other jobs.
A tax cheat and father of a child murderer has bankrolled a right-wing streaming network that has given Steve Bannon a platform again. It’s available through most major streaming platforms, too.
A tremendous piece of local journalism led to the resignation of the police chief of Brookside, Alabama, who had set up a racket that scammed drivers out of over $500,000 a year in fines and forfeitures – often when they were no closer to the town than the local interstate.
A Republican state senator in Texas has sworn in a declaration that the state’s Republicans violated federal voting rights laws in a recent redistricting.
Minneapolis police insisted on a no-knock warrant in a predawn raid – raid, a word that should be reserved for war, or perhaps when there’s a lost ark involved – on an apartment in the city. They ended up murdering an innocent civilian sleeping in that apartment.
Spokane district attorney Larry Haskell is under fire, again, for his wife’s long history of racist and white nationalist comments online. It’s more disturbing that voters keep electing him.
Families in West Virginia are suing a school that held a Christian revival on campus during school hours, with some teachers forcing students to attend. This isn’t the first such incident in this school district.
I liked Encanto, and assume it’s going to win the Oscar for best animated film, but I noticed the script glossed over the weird power dynamic between the Madrigals and the townsfolk. Jim Vorel wrote about that very topic for Paste.
Hannah Keyser has a great piece at Yahoo! Sports asking why people get so mad over Hall of Fame voting. The abuse was worse than ever this year.
Ohio’s extreme gerrymandering leads to more extreme laws from legislators who don’t have to worry about re-election, even though the laws are often opposed by a majority of Ohio voters.
The mayor of Ridgeland, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson, decided to order the city’s libraries to remove all LGBTQ+ materials before he’d release their funding. The city’s leaders are denying this is what’s happening, but a local nonprofit group has raised all of the missing funds from donations.
This feels like old news now, but McMinn County, Tennessee, banned Maus, the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, from its school curricula because there are naked mice in it.
Who’s behind all the book-banning movements? Major conservative dark-money donors, of course.
And they’re also pushing educational gag orders across the country, with over 120 such bills introduced in the last 13 months.
Like the one in Florida, supported by the death-loving governor there, that wants to force LGBTQ+ kids back in the closet. (DeSantis can’t even bring himself to condemn a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando.)
Or the laws targeting the chimera of critical race theory in schools, which threatens teachers’ livelihoods and even their freedom.
LZ Granderson writes about the extreme illogic of Michelle Tafoya leaving the media to campaign against racism education, when she herself lives in a town that has become majority white thanks to racial covenants in housing contracts.
The British government recently moved to make something called “virginity repair” surgery illegal. I didn’t know this was a thing, but it is clearly founded in some seriously deranged religious beliefs.
Matt Walsh, espouser of misogynistic and homophobic views under the guise of Christianity, tried to trick a bunch of trans people into participating in a documentary attacking trans rights.
This is from before the Oscar nominations were announced, but the LA Times‘ Justin Chang implored the Academy to nominate Drive My Car for Best Picture – which they did.
Craig Calcaterra continues to expose New Albany, Ohio, school board member Philip Derrow as a science-denying history-ignorant turnip.
Is a building at Florida State University causing cancer in the people who work there? Cancer clusters are often matters of chance, but in this case, there’s evidence of actual carcinogens in the air ducts, and the school has closed the building to investigate.
Missouri’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt courted snitches among parents opposed to mask mandates, setting off a series of pointless, expensive battles that probably did way more to harm kids than wearing a mask ever could.
Instagram is doing nothing to suspend or block accounts promoting hate speech.
I don’t often agree with Jennifer Rubin’s editorials in the Washington Post, but I think her take here is correct: The only way Democrats can hope to fight Republican voter-suppression efforts is to change the venue to local elections and referenda, taking the message directly to voters – and even that may not be enough.
I can’t love this tweet enough.
Board game news: I saw a prototype of Earth, a tableau- and engine-building game from Inside Up Games, at PAX Unplugged, and from what I saw it looks right up my alley. It’s on Kickstarter now.
So is Trekking Through History, the third Trekking game (following Trekking the National Parks and Trekking the World) from Underdog Games.
And so is Rolling Heights, the new roll-and-write game from the designer of Mystic Vale.
Tiwanaku, the game previously known as Pachamama, will relaunch on Kickstarter on March 9^th.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baseball, board game news, coronavirus, dark money, florida, free speech, links, mississippi, missouri, movies, Music, philadelphia, police, san francisco, science, stick to baseball, texas, unions, vaccines, voter suppression, washington state, west virginia

→ January 16, 2022
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 1/16/22.

Still working on the prospect rankings – I started the actual writing this week, after several weeks of prep – which will run starting January 31^st at the Athletic. I appreciate your patience. My podcast and my Paste reviews will return this week.

And now, the links…

Longreads first: This New York Times story by Maggie Jones on the realities of sex after age 70 is one of the best pieces of longform journalism I’ve ever read. It is quite long, but it’s thorough, clear, and highly empathetic, all while discussing a topic that remains largely taboo even as other areas of human sexuality have become more acceptable in mainstream media.
Guitar World interviewed Mastodon’s guitarists about their writing and playing styles, including the writing of their massive new album Hushed and Grim.
Have we forgotten how to read critically? I’d counter: Did we ever know?
From last March: Smithsonian goes long on the history of Neapolitan pizza, the world’s “first” fast food. (Maybe.)
Philadelphia magazine has updated its list of the metro area’s top 50 restaurants for the first time since the start of the pandemic, but without ranking them this time. The new list has two of our favorites right here in Wilmington, Bardea and Le Cavalier, and some wonderful places in Philly, including High Street (in its new location!), Stina, Suraya, and Friday Saturday Sunday.
A study widely shared by anti-vaxxers has been revised to reflect new data showing vaccine boosters are more effective against the Omicron variant than previously believed. I’m sure the anti-vaxxers will correct themselves as soon as possible, without anyone else pointing this out to them.
That said, Omicron is still putting incredible pressure on our overtaxed hospital system, in large part due to the number of people who have refused to get vaccinated.
Here’s a study showing that COVID-19 vaccines nearly eliminated hospitalization and life support requirements for teenagers who were infected with the virus. No vaccinated teens in the study group died of COVID-19, compared to seven deaths in unvaccinated teens. Here’s the Washington Post article on the study.
CORBEVAX, the open-source COVID-19 vaccine that represents our best chance so far to vaccinate the developing world, has received more funding from the company that makes Tito’s Vodka than from the U.S. government. Wealthy countries are busy buying Pfizer and Moderna vaccines while failing to fund a vaccine that would reduce the odds of new variants emerging in less wealthy nations.
A Canadian ~~hero~~ judge ruled that an unvaccinated father may not see his kids until he gets vaccinated. Imagine being so caught up in anti-vax conspiracy theories that you would rather refuse to see your own kids than get a safe, effective shot.
Maine’s medical licensing board has temporarily suspended the license of a doctor who spread anti-vaccine and other COVID-19 misinformation. She has also prescribed hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, two drugs that are ineffective against COVID-19, by falsely claiming her patients had other illnesses.
There was a huge brouhaha over on the forums for Tabletop Simulator after it came out that a moderator was banning users just for saying the words “gay” and “trans.” Kotaku has the whole breakdown, including the culture wars in TS’s Steam reviews now.
The L.A. Times has more on the battle between G/O Media and the Writers Guild, with the union arguing that the AV Club’s private equity owners have treated the site’s Chicago-based employees unfairly.
Baltimore’s top prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby (D), has been indicted on charges of perjury related to a series of financial transactions where she claimed hardship so she could buy multiple properties in Florida.
Michigan’s Attorney General has referred her investigation of GOP electors who signed a document that falsely claimed Trump had won the state’s electoral votes to federal prosecutors. The electors may have committed forgery of a public record and election law forgery, each of which would lead to jail times.
Also in Michigan, a woman filed a criminal complaint accusing former state House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R) of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. Chatfield is the woman’s brother-in-law, and he claims they had an “affair” that began after she turned 18. It’s very Clemens-esque.
A Chicago alderman and community organizers are urging the feds to investigate how Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) may have misused federal COVID-19 relief funds.
Two LA cops ignored a robbery in progress to try to ‘catch’ a Pokemon Go creature. They were fired, sued to get their jobs back, and lost their appeal.
Amazon employees in Bessemer, Alabama, will get a second chance to vote on unionizing after the company was found to have engaged in unfair anti-labor practices during the first election.
Also in Alabama, an especially loony anti-vaxxer who was recently arrested for refusing to wear a mask in a Whole Foods is now saying drinking your own urine cures COVID-19 (it doesn’t).
This story on bokit, a fried-dough sandwich native to Guadeloupe, will make you want to visit the Caribbean island and French overseas department.
Invasive species from around the world are threatening Antarctica’s ecosystems by hitching rides on the increasing number of ships that visit the continent.
Board game news: There’s a video trailer for a new board game based on the hit series The Queen’s Gambit, a show about an existing board game called … chess.
All we have so far is this tweet, but the publisher of the great two-player game Riftforce has announced their second title, a deck management game for up to 8 players called Underdogs, as well as an upcoming expansion to Riftforce.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: alabama, board game news, caribbean, chicago, coronavirus, delaware, environment, links, longreads, misinformation, Music, philadelphia, pizza, police, stick to baseball, unions, vaccines

→ December 18, 2021
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 12/17/21.

My big item this week was my annual ranking of the top board games of the year for Paste, which runs 15 titles deep (plus a bonus for the best reissue). My music rankings will go up here next week, and I’ll have a PAX Unplugged recap at Paste next week too.

Nothing new at the Athletic from me, as I work on prospect rankings and there are no transactions to cover. I’ll do a chat next week, though, even if it’s mostly non-baseball stuff.

On The Keith Law Show, I spoke with Nik Sharma, author of the great cookbooks Season and The Flavor Equation, about those books, underused ingredients, and his unusual career arc. You can subscribe and listen on iTunes and Spotify.

I will also send out another edition of my free email newsletter this week, although I have a feeling with baking plans and the kids home I am already setting myself up for failure. And one last time, here’s another reminder that I have two books out, The Inside Game and Smart Baseball, that would make great gifts for the readers (especially baseball fans) on your lists.

And now, the links…

Longreads first: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has emerged as one of the most dangerous anti-vaccine propagandists in the world, and it’s made his “charity” a ton of money. He also gave a slightly unhinged interview to Gawker, in which he refuses to admit he invoked the Holocaust as a comparison to vaccine mandates in his book. (He already did this back in 2015, and apologized. He’s just back on his bullshit.) He’s also suing a blogger who wrote that he spoke at a rally with German far-right figures back in August – which he did, at a rally heavily attended by neo-Nazis.
Utah is the second-driest state in the country, but rejects water-conservation efforts, thanks to lobbyists and Republican politicians. (Insert joke about it being a dry state here.)
The Atlantic looks at the actual harm done by the right-wing’s fake child-sex-ring panics of the last few years (think Wayfair). Sex trafficking is real. You don’t need to buy into a conspiracy theory for that.
You probably already saw the Atlantic’s extremely long piece on how Trump and his acolytes are well on their way to stealing the 2024 election.
The New Yorker has the crazy story of a Welshman who threw away a hard drive with his bitcoin keys – and the bitcoin would now be worth a half a billion dollars, except that the town that controls the dump where his hard drive is located won’t let him dig for it.
Geraldine DeRuiter, who writes as The Everywhereist, has an incredible takedown of a horrendous meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Lecce, Italy.
Police officers in Torrance, California, have jeopardized hundreds of cases through their practice of sending each other racist and homophobic texts. Decades of television, like the returning Law & Order, have indoctrinated viewers to believe that the police are always the good guys.
Scammers in India targeted several high-profile female journalists who were critical of the government with an elaborate scam that promised trips to or jobs at Harvard. The university knew about these scams, at least at some point, and did not appear to take any action to stop them.
There’s a lot of media coverage of retailers claiming theft is at an all-time high, but the data do not back this up.
A Tennessee high school teacher tried to teach his students about white privilege, and ended up losing his job. Meanwhile, Tennessee is banning the teaching of words and concepts that are tangentially related to critical race theory, because there is no racism in Tennessee any more, obviously. Oh, and the state’s medical board posted and then deleted rules against spreading misinformation after pressure from the Republican Party. Nice state y’all have down there.
Some states are moving against doctors and nurses who spread misinformation, at least.
Some large, early vaccination surveys fell prey to the big data paradox.
Andrew Cuomo appointed a crony of his to run the SUNY system of public universities in New York. Turns out the guy is a bully and a creep. Are you shocked? I’m shocked.
A judge is preventing the New York Times from reporting on Project Veritas, which would set a horrible precedent by allowing subjects to sue to stop negative coverage.
Kellogg is hiring scabs to replace striking workers. Don’t buy Frosted Flakes, folks.
Kickstarter is moving its crowdfunding platform to blockchain. Ryan Reynolds But Why dot gif?
Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa correctly described social media as “toxic sludge.”
A school district in Utah had two students wear racist costumes, so they showed students a diversity video. White parents in Utah called it an attack on them. I mean, it was, but not in the way they think.
Author and essayist bell hooks died this week at 69.
Board game news: A Swedish video game company is buying board game behemoth Asmodee from the private equity firm that owned it, which I see as very good news for Asmodee itself and the tabletop space in general.
Pachamama is heading back to Kickstarter soon after its first go-round didn’t get much traction.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: bitcoin, board game news, food writing, frauds, italy, links, longreads, misinformation, new york, police, stick to baseball, unions, utah

→ October 16, 2021
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 10/16/21.

My first dispatch from the Arizona Fall League is up now for subscribers to the Athletic. I’ll have probably one more post, a longer one that covers everything else I saw.

Over at Paste, I reviewed Riftforce, a great new two-player game that sort of combines Battle Line and Magic: the Gathering, if you can imagine that. It has a very high replay value as well, which is key in a two-player game.

With some more content out, I’ll get on my email newsletter as soon as I’m back from Arizona. And, as the holidays approach, I’ll remind you all every week that I have two books out, The Inside Game and Smart Baseball, that would make great gifts for the readers (especially baseball fans) on your lists.

And now, the links, with a shorter list this week as I’ve been reading less while on the road…

Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones explains why Adam Schefter was completely in the wrong to allow the subject of an article to see and approve that article before publication. Of course Darren Rovell defended it.
One of you sent this along: Writing in Reason, Matt Welch explained how the government helped MLB wreck the minors, and how they can also help undo some of the damage. I tweeted this earlier in the week: If you care about minor league players, call your Representative and Senators and ask them to repeal the Save America’s Pastime Act. It’ll take you 5-10 minutes.
Netflix has really fumbled its response to criticism from its own employees of the transphobic material in Dave Chappelle’s new comedy special.
A prominent Australian anti-vaccine influencer put yellow stars of David on herself and her family last week, later deleting several of her social media accounts after people pointed out what an incredibly shitty, anti-Semitic move that was.
Hold your surprise, but anti-vaxxers are misrepresenting a study on breakthrough cases in Vietnam.
Police officers in Dayton, Ohio, dragged a paraplegic Black man from his car by his hair. The victim, Clifford Owensby, was charged with – wait for it – having tinted windows, and failing to have his son in a car seat. The officers in question have not been identified and you know damn well that means they haven’t been sanctioned, suspended, or fired.
Via Craig Calcaterra: The Ohio Board of Education voted to rescind a resolution condemning racism. That’s right, kids: In Midwest Florida, racism isn’t bad any more!
The University of Delaware tried to hush up a horrible sexual assault committed by one student against another, but had to acknowledge it when activists made the story go viral on TikTok. The school claimed it was a “domestic violence” incident that didn’t require that they notify the campus community.
Also from a reader: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch discovered that a state health department database revealed social security numbers and other private information of some Missourians, so they notified the government, gave them time to fix the error, and then published a story. The Governor’s response: threaten to sue the paper for ‘hacking.’
Podcaster and writer Michael Hobbes followed up on last week’s “bad art friend” longread by pointing out that it’s easy to see who the bad art friend is: Both of them.
Nik Sharma, author of Seasons and The Flavor Equation, offered some tips to avoid ‘crying’ when dicing onions.
A sort-of-reporter for an Ole Miss fan site published quotes from a player despite never talking to that player to get those quotes. The reporter has been fired and the site itself was rebranded without two of its former leaders.
Board game news, starting with some Kickstarters of note: the train-and-stock game Union Station, the beautiful seed-planting game Gartenbau (Horticulture), and the set collection game Birdwatcher, which has a theme that seems a bit familiar to me.
Upper Deck is running a contest with the top prize a free trip to Gen Con 2022. You have to submit a short video or a brief statement explaining why you are the ultimate ‘legendary gamer’ (meaning you love games a lot).

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: anti-science, board game news, Cooking, journalism, links, missouri, ohio, police, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ May 1, 2021
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 5/1/21.

I had two posts for subscribers to The Athletic this week, one on how the Rockies’ next GM might start to turn the franchise around, and a draft scouting notebook looking at several day-one candidates, led by Fordham lefty Matt Mikulski.

On the Keith Law Show this week, my guest was MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis, talking about this year’s MLB draft class. You can subscribe on Apple podcasts, Amazon, and Spotify. I also appeared on the Athletic Baseball Show on Friday, which will be my regular slot for most of the year.

If you’d like to buy The Inside Game and support my board game habit, Midtown Scholar has a few signed copies still available. You can also buy it from any of the indie stores in this twitter thread, all of whom at least had the book in stock earlier this month. If none of those works, you can find it on Bookshop.org and at Amazon.

For more of me, you can subscribe to my free email newsletter.

And now, the links…

Longreads first: One of the many victims of disgraced writer/teacher Blake Bailey came forward to tell how Bailey manipulated and raped her.
Alameda police killed Mario Gonzalez, who was unarmed, by pinning him to the ground for five minutes during an arrest on April 19^th. This is a systemic issue.
CloseCallSports has the best explanation of the obstruction call in Milwaukee that I tried to explain on Twitter, only to have my replies explode with people who didn’t like the call. An umpire can make a call that is technically correct – and Marty Foster’s was, indeed, justified by the rules – but so rarely made that we assume it’s wrong.
Tony LaRussa’s animal welfare nonprofit is plagued by claims of racism and a toxic workplace environment. Between this and his multiple DUIs, LaRussa’s hiring by the White Sox this offseason looks even more suspect. Over at Sox Machine, Jim Margalus talks about some of what LaRussa is doing wrong on the field, too.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice (R) announced that residents aged 16-35 who get the COVID-19 vaccine will get a $100 savings bond, an ingenious use of the stimulus funding the state has received.
After years of misguided opposition, Florida officials will finally release genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the kind responsible for spreading the Zika virus, dengue fever, chikungunya, and more, to stop the insects’ offspring from surviving into adulthood.
Anti-vaxxers are adopting yellow stars and other symbols of the Holocaust, in case you were wondering how low they would sink in their war against science and rationality.
The official Twitter account for the Auschwitz Museum is pushing revisionist history that absolves Poles of their role in the Holocaust (Haaretz, $ required).
PBS has a new series coming up on May 11^th called Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer, about the extraordinary success of vaccines and other major medical advances that helped double our life expectancy in a century.
Facebook claimed they removed the “Disinformation Dozen,” twelve people responsible for the vast majority of anti-vaccine lies on the internet, but ten of them are still active on the site.
Joe Rogan told his millions of young listeners not to get a COVID-19 vaccine. That is dangerously irresponsible, and he shouldn’t be issuing medical advice.
Julie DiCaro reminds us not to listen to people with obvious conflicts of interest – agents, lawyers, fans – when they try to downplay charges of sexual assault against popular athletes.
Fox News is struggling to “pick a side” when their culture-war takes conflict with the facts, as with two recent manufactured outrage stories that turned out to be false – that Biden would ban or limit meat consumption, and that migrant children were being given Kamala Harris’ book.
The BBC asks why the west neglects a potential superfood source that’s efficient, sustainable, and climate-friendly: insects.
Epicurious revealed that they won’t publish any new beef recipes, part of an effort to encourage more sustainable eating. They stopped publishing those a year ago and they say nobody has noticed.
Conservative writer Gary Abernathy argues that all conservatives should support reparations to Black Americans.
From the National Review, the “Fairness Doctrine” is not the answer to Tucker Carlson’s misinformation.
University researchers appear to have moved and possibly lost the remains of two children killed in Philadelphia’s bombing of its own citizens in 1985, part of a government assault on the MOVE cult.
Deforestation in the amazon has soared under the reactionary Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, devastating native homelands and reducing one of the world’s most important carbon dioxide sinks.
A teacher in Washington State’s Issaquah School District is on administrative leave after parents objected to a poem she used in her anti-racism curriculum
Ashley Feinberg may have found JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s secret Instagram and Twitter accounts. Dimon has been accused of misleading investors in the “London Whale” investment disaster and of overseeing a culture of discrimination at his banks.
Board game news: Capstone Games is reissuing the Uwe Rosenberg worker-placement classic Glass Road, and pre-orders are open now at $10 off.
Renegade has a Kickstarter going for the ‘epic mad scientist’ game My Father’s Work, which they say will only be sold through their website once it’s released.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: anti-science, baseball, board game news, coronavirus, links, longreads, police, racism, stick to baseball, sustainability, vaccines

→ March 20, 2021
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 3/20/21.

I had one new post for subscribers to the Athletic this week, looking at some breakout candidates for 2021. A reader suggested Gavin Lux in the comments as well, and I agree with them – he’s also a very good bet to break out, especially since it seems like he’s going to get the playing time to do so.

On the Keith Law Show this week, I spoke to my friend Tim Grierson about his new book This is How You Make a Movie, the Oscar nominations, and his Cardinal fandom. You can subscribe on Apple podcasts, Amazon, and Spotify.

For more of me, you can subscribe to my free email newsletter. Also, you can still buy The Inside Game and Smart Baseball anywhere you buy books; the paperback edition of The Inside Game will be out on April 6th.

And now, the links…

Longreads first: The Atlantic’s Helen Lewis looks at people who fake being members of underrepresented by minority groups, calling it “social Munchausen syndrome.”
The American Psychological Association issued a resolution opposing gender identity change efforts (GICE), as the evidence overwhelmingly shows that GICE – which, in lay terms, is trying to convince a trans person via bogus ‘therapy’ that they aren’t transgender but are suffering from some mental disorder – is harmful to patients.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek looks at the bizarre family feud between the owners of the only medical swab manufacturer in the U.S. – a company that has been handed a de facto monopoly by the pandemic.
The Biden Administration is terminating some hires with histories of marijuana use, even after telling them such details wouldn’t affect the. There’s no evidence-based argument to support this, and cannabis use is legal in so many places now that the policy seems even more out of step.
Here in Delaware, New Castle County – where I live, with Black residents making up 26% of the population – released body cam footage of the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of two cops, and the video contradicts the officers’ claims that the man drove his car at them before they fired. The police department didn’t want the video released, but County Executive Matt Meyer did so over their objections. Also of note: “A police officer in Delaware has never been found criminally liable for a shooting.”
Texas Republicans have introduced a slew of bills designed to keep people of color, or just Democrats in general, from voting, even as the state appears to be turning some shade of purple.
A Florida man is facing felony charges for putting up a sham candidate in a 2020 Congressional election, and while he and the candidate might end up doing time, the ploy worked. Frank Artiles is alleged to have paid Alex Rodriguez (not that one) to stand for the election against the incumbent José Javier Rodríguez (D) to confuse voters. Alex Rodriguez took over 6000 votes, and José Javier lost by only 32 votes.
A former anti-vaxxer wrote about his decision to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and why he’s encouraging others to do so. He doesn’t explain why he was opposed to all sorts of medicine before, although he may have been a Christian Scientist or in another similar cult.
A pair of internal medicine physicians wrote about the need for a unified response to vaccine disinformation.
The National Review decided to offer up a defense of the British monarchy. You know, the one we fought a revolution to escape.
In the ongoing trial of three St. Louis cops who beat a Black protestor who was, in fact, an undercover cop, the defense argument is essentially that the Black cop had it coming.
Board game news: Cheap manufacturing costs have led to a rise in counterfeit copies of popular board games, including Catan, Pandemic, and Clank!
Z-Man Games, now part of the Asmodee empire, announced in a lengthy post why they’re ending reprints of their Euro Classics line, which included updated versions of Samurai and Tigris & Euphrates, while also cancelling a scheduled update of Princes of Florence. It’s disappointing, as these are good games that I think are still finding new audiences, but in the flood of new games every year it’s also easy for games like these to get lost.
There’s a Kickstarter coming next week for a brand-new version of the 2005 game Fjords, with a redesign from one of my favorites, Phil Walker-Harding (Cacao, Gizmos, Silver & Gold, Imhotep).
And there’s an active Kickstarter for a cheeky-looking take-that game called CULTivate.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: coronavirus, delaware, florida, lgbt rights, longreads, police, stick to baseball, texas

→ October 31, 2020
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 10/31/20.

My ranking of the top 40 free agents this offseason went up on Thursday morning for subscribers to the Athletic. I also answered some questions for Kaitlyn McGrath, our Blue Jays beat writer, on the state of the Blue Jays’ farm system.

My guest on this week’s episode of the Keith Law Show was Taylor Trammell, Mariners outfielder and author of a column on the Players Tribune called “Baseball Is Not Black Enough.” He was an outstanding guest, and I think this is one of the best interviews I’ve had, which is all to Taylor’s credit. You can subscribe to my podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and now Amazon podcasts. I appeared on TSN 1040 in Vancouver on Wednesday to talk about the World Series and the role of analytics in the sport, in which I think I expressed my views on the subject pretty well.

I sent out another edition of my free email newsletter on Friday to subscribers. Thank you all for the kind feedback, as always.

Here’s my weekly reminder that my books The Inside Game and Smart Baseball make excellent gifts for the baseball fan or avid reader in your life and you should buy lots of copies for everyone you know, like your Secret Santa person, or that annoying guy at work who thinks he knows everything there is to know about sportsball.

And now the links…

Longreads first: “It’s not an accident that, every cycle, the boogeyman of the Democrats is a woman.” The Vanity Fair cover story and profile of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is well worth reading, despite the non-troversy over what she wore in the photos.
The Washington Post explores how several companies issued six- and seven-figure bonuses to executives, then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, stiffing creditors and laying off thousands of employees.
The New York Times has the story of how the Wall Street Journal‘s news reporters’ debunking of their own editorial page’s claims that the Hunter Biden laptop story was some big deal, concluding that Joe Biden had nothing to do with it, thus foiling the Trump campaign’s last-ditch attempt to attach a scandal to their opponent. (The “dossier” in question is fake, and the alleged author doesn’t exist.)
Also from the Grey Lady, the story of Trump’s sketchy relationship with Deutsche Bank, and his avoidance of taxes on $287 million in forgiven debts.
Amy Coney Barrett is the least experienced SCOTUS judge in 30 years – which is what the GOP wanted, since she’s likely to give them decades of loyal service.
Author Mona Eltahawy writes that Barrett is a five-star general in the army of the patriarchy.
QAnon’s predictions – like JFK Jr. coming back on October 17^th at a Trump rally – haven’t come true, so how will the movement survive this failure of prophecy?
This Washington Post investigative report found that during Trump’s term, millions of government and GOP dollars have flowed to his properties, so I suppose he drained the swamp right into his own coffers.
Many states and countries are moving to eliminate daylight saving(s) time, in line with increasing evidence that the practice does more harm than good.
Travis Roy, the BU hockey player who broke his neck in one of his first games in college and was paralyzed from the neck down, died this week at age 45.
Philly police smashed the windows of an SUV, beat the driver, and then pulled a toddler from the backseat … and the National Fraternal Order of Police claimed that an officer had found the child wandering around barefoot.
A judge in Florida’s Duval County resigned from the county’s voting board after a local paper reported that he’d donated 12 times to Trump’s campaign and had multiple Trump signs in his yard – which the judge’s wife claimed were on “her side” of the property.
A professor at Northeastern wrote an open letter to the school’s students as the university tries to force all professors there to teach classes in person in the spring semester.
Facebook employees say the company manipulated the news that users saw to favor right-wing sites in an effort to appease Republicans.
Easter Island defeated the coronavirus without causing a deep division among its people by invoking their cultural practice of tapu, which gives us the English word taboo.
Côte d’Ivoire has its own presidential election this year, with a current president running for a third term that might not be constitutional, and a rival whose refusal to leave that same office in 2010 led to a civil war and an ongoing trial at the Hague.
A British-Australian academic has been held in Iranian prisons for two years after she was arrested while attending a conference in Tehran. Kylie Moore-Gilbert was moved from a notorious women’s prison, Qarchak, to a secretive ward elsewhere in Tehran.
Board game news: Renegade Game Studios announced that they’re taking pre-orders for Atheneum: Mystic Library.

Please, if you are a U.S. citizen and you haven’t already done so, vote. Vote this anti-science, racist, authoritarian Administration out, so we can get back to arguing over whether Yadier Molina is a Hall of Famer instead.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: africa, coronavirus, florida, links, longreads, police, stick to baseball, the swamp

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