{"id":5362,"date":"2016-12-31T11:50:12","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T16:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=5362"},"modified":"2016-12-31T14:13:08","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T19:13:08","slug":"stick-to-baseball-123116","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/31\/stick-to-baseball-123116\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 12\/31\/16."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>No Insider pieces and no Klawchat this week, between the lack of MLB activity, a little holiday-related travel, and me just generally taking it easy this week. I did review <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2hwAN0l\" target=\"_blank\">the boardgame City of Spies: Estoril 1942<\/a> for <em>Paste<\/em>, and have reviews coming up for Doom, Kodama, and Inis.<\/p>\n<p>You can <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2dtXS3S\" target=\"_blank\">preorder my upcoming book, <em>Smart Baseball<\/em><\/a>, on amazon. Also, please sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/tinyletter.com\/keithlaw\" target=\"_blank\">my more-or-less weekly email newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And now, the links&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Texas is making rapid progress in becoming the nation&#8217;s worst backwater, from anti-gay laws to wiping out abortion clinics to reducing environmental protections to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/denied\/\" target=\"_blank\">a statewide cut in special education resources<\/a>, as detailed in this <em>Houston Chronicle<\/em> investigative report on how tens of thousands of disabled children in Texas aren&#8217;t getting the education help they deserve. <\/li>\n<li>This <em>New York Times<\/em> profile on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/12\/28\/magazine\/afghanistan-soldier-ptsd-the-fighter.html\" target=\"_blank\">an Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD who was convicted of a home invasion<\/a> highlights how little we do for soldiers returning from active combat duty, and how costly the war in Iraq has been in human lives.<\/li>\n<li>I thought the <em>Telegraph<\/em> had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2016\/12\/26\/george-michael-died-alone-boyfriend-reveals-battled-secret-heroin\/\" target=\"_blank\">the best piece on George Michael&#8217;s<\/a> career, life, and death at age 53, possibly the result of a heroin addiction. If you haven&#8217;t heard his 1990 album, <em>Listen Without Prejudice, Volume 1<\/em>, it stands up incredibly well today for its mixture of styles that, at the time, was seen as a disappointment by fans who wanted him to remain a bubblegum pop star. And the same publication also wrote <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/films\/2016\/12\/29\/bleeding-feet-gene-kellys-tongue-singin-rain-nearly-brokedebbie\/\" target=\"_blank\">how horrible Gene Kelly was to a 19-year-old Debbie Reynolds<\/a> during the filming of <em>Singing in the Rain<\/em>, and how Fred Astaire came to the rescue.<\/li>\n<li>Security expert Bruce Schneier, who coined the term &#8220;security theater&#8221; to refer to all the things we do to appear to make our lives safer, points out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.schneier.com\/blog\/archives\/2016\/12\/security_risks_12.html\" target=\"_blank\">that TSA Pre-Check also won&#8217;t work<\/a>, as it just provides a second way for a would-be terrorist to beat the system and get on a plane. He links to a former TSA administrator&#8217;s post <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/la-oe-hawley-tsa-precheck-vulnerabilities-20161223-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">explaining Pre-Check&#8217;s vulnerabilities<\/a>, but the two disagree on the solution \u2013 Schneier wants less pre-flight screening for everyone, rather than for a select few, saying that terrorists are going to pick &#8216;clean&#8217; operatives no matter what we do.<\/li>\n<li>This longread <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/social-issues\/the-mystery-of-why-the-best-african-american-figure-skater-in-history-went-bankrupt-and-lives-in-a-trailer\/2016\/02\/25\/a191972c-ce99-11e5-abc9-ea152f0b9561_story.html?src=longreads&#038;utm_term=.830945852222\" target=\"_blank\">on Olympian Debbie Thomas&#8217; descent into mental illness and poverty<\/a> is from March, but I just found it this week and it&#8217;s one of the best and most awful stories I&#8217;ve read in the last few months. Thomas won a bronze medal in Calgary in 1988, became a doctor, but has lost everything in the last few years as a result of bipolar disorder.<\/li>\n<li>Donald Trump took credit for Sprint&#8217;s decision, made <em>in April<\/em>, to add 5000 jobs in the U.S., and <a href=\"http:\/\/oliverwillis.com\/news-outlets-repeated-trumps-lie-5000-sprint-jobs\/\" target=\"_blank\">here&#8217;s a partial list of media outlets who repeated his lie in headlines<\/a> without pointing out its untruth. Yes, there&#8217;s more to an article than a headline, but I know from experience many people will read the headline and then move along \u2026 but will still send me an angry email about a headline I didn&#8217;t write. (Editors write headlines, not writers.)<\/li>\n<li>A <em>New York Times<\/em> investigation found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/12\/28\/us\/homeland-security-border-bribes.html?smid=tw-nytpolitics&#038;smtyp=cur&#038;_r=1\" target=\"_blank\">rampant bribery among Homeland Security officials<\/a> charged with protecting our borders. I doubt there&#8217;s a simple solution to this: no private or public entity will pay agents more than defeating the security is worth to those trying to do so.<\/li>\n<li>The same Russian hacker group that has been accused of trying to influence our election <a href=\"http:\/\/www.burlingtonfreepress.com\/story\/news\/local\/vermont\/2016\/12\/30\/russia-hacked-us-grid-through-burlington-electric\/96024326\/\" target=\"_blank\">placed malware on a computer at the main electric utility in Vermont<\/a>, raising concerns about an attack on our infrastructure.<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile, the Russian government has also been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/12\/24\/world\/europe\/intent-on-unsettling-eu-russia-taps-foot-soldiers-from-the-fringe.html\" target=\"_blank\">supporting far-right movements across Europe<\/a> in an attempt to destabilize EU states, finding success in Hungary, Estonia, and Bulgaria, along with the rise of the neo-Nazi National Front Party in France.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;More than a third of the almost 200 people who have met with President-elect Donald Trump since his election last month, including those interviewing for administration jobs, gave large amounts of money to support his campaign and other Republicans this election cycle.&#8221; So begins <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2016\/12\/donald-trump-donors-rewards-232974\" target=\"_blank\">this Politico story on the rising kleptocracy in Washington<\/a>, where money buys you direct access like we haven&#8217;t seen in decades (under either party).<\/li>\n<li>Another neo-Nazi group <a href=\"https:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/daily-stormer-armed-march-whitefish-richard-spencer-mother-c24e046d7973#.yg7353b3v\" target=\"_blank\">is planning an armed march in Whitefish, Montana<\/a>, where its founder&#8217;s mother lives. There&#8217;s more background, and information on the community&#8217;s response, in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/12\/30\/507597653\/celebration-of-lights-takes-on-new-meaning-as-montana-town-fights-anti-semitism\" target=\"_blank\">this audio piece from NPR<\/a>, which describes businesses putting menorahs in windows to show support and solidarity this week.<\/li>\n<li>Jane Coaston of MTV.com looks at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mtv.com\/news\/2967178\/aleppo-understanding-syrian-civil-war\/\" target=\"_blank\">the roots and insolubility of the Syrian civil war<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>New York issued <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/feature\/nbc-out\/amp\/nation-s-first-known-intersex-birth-certificate-issued-nyc-n701186\" target=\"_blank\">the first (known) birth certificate for an intersex person<\/a> \u2013 that is, one that states the person&#8217;s sex as &#8220;intersex,&#8221; referring to someone born with physical and genetic characteristics of both sexes, often including sexual organs. This is law catching up to science, but I ask you, North Carolina and Texas and Mississippi and every bigot out there trying to make life miserable for people unlike you: What bathroom would you like her to use?<\/li>\n<li>In 2018 and 2020, remember <a href=\"http:\/\/mobile.nytimes.com\/2016\/12\/24\/opinion\/sunday\/the-stolen-supreme-court-seat.html?_r=0&#038;referer=\" target=\"_blank\">how the Republicans stole a Supreme Court seat<\/a> by refusing to even hold a hearing for Merrick Garland, nominated to fill that vacancy by President Obama.<\/li>\n<li>The political crisis in Burundi, sparked by the questionable re-election of Pierre Nkurunziza to a third term as President, was not helped <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newvision.co.ug\/new_vision\/news\/1443074\/burundi-leader-hints-fourth-election-run-2020\" target=\"_blank\">when he hinted he might run again in 2020<\/a>. The Burundian constitution limits the president to a single re-election, and his decision to run roughshod over that clause led to 500 deaths and over 300,000 refugees leaving the country.<\/li>\n<li>An open letter from 23 activists, many of them Nobel laureates, calls for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2016\/dec\/30\/nobel-laureates-aung-san-suu-kyi-ethnic-cleansing-rohingya\" target=\"_blank\">the UN Security Council to stop ethnic cleansing in Burma<\/a> against the Rohingya minority \u2013 and criticizes Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi for her inaction on this issue.<\/li>\n<li>That Gambian election a few weeks ago that appeared to end the tyrannic rule of President Yahya Jammeh? Yeah, well, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.africanews.com\/2016\/12\/31\/gambia-guinea-against-military-intervention-buhari-s-envoy-meets-macky-sall\/\" target=\"_blank\">so much for that, as Jammeh is trying to annul the results<\/a> and declare himself the winner. Senegal, which surrounds Gambia on all but the latter&#8217;s tiny coastal border, has said a military intervention is only a &#8220;last resort.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><em>Fortune<\/em> looks at the <a href=\"http:\/\/fortune.com\/silicon-valley-startups-fraud-venture-capital\/\" target=\"_blank\">recent spate of frauds among tech startups<\/a>, asking whether this is a growing trend giving the amount of VC money flying around.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No Insider pieces and no Klawchat this week, between the lack of MLB activity, a little holiday-related travel, and me just generally taking it easy this week. I did review the boardgame City of Spies: Estoril 1942 for Paste, and have reviews coming up for Doom, Kodama, and Inis. You can preorder my upcoming book, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[899,190,905,649,870,477],"class_list":["post-5362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-links","tag-neo-nazis","tag-ptsd","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-texas","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5362"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5365,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5362\/revisions\/5365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}