Month: January 2023

Here are some topics I’ve found interesting since my last post: 

1. California is about to experience electoral office musical chairs as several Democrats this week announced their intention to run for the United States Senate seat currently held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). And like the series of five special elections held in the Oakland-Berkeley area in a period just short of 12 months in 1998-99, Barbara Lee is involved. 

While Feinstein has not announced her retirement, her political situation has deteriorated to the point where other electeds aren’t concerned about the potential ramifications of appearing disrespectful. 

Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) was the first to announce her intention to run earlier this week. We then heard that Rep. Barbara Lee (R-CA)—who won her seat in the House in the series of special elections I mentioned above—has told colleagues she planned to run. Observers expect Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to jump in soon, and Rep. Rho Khanna (D-CA) also is thinking about the race. I suspect there will be others. 

These elected officials leaving their current office to seek the U.S. Senate opens up seats for other politicians to try to win. And from there, openings could cascade into the State Legislature or county and city offices, depending on the results. 

Politico California explains several scenarios. Here’s an example of what could happen with Lee’s seat (since it’s the closest to where I live): “Progressive stalwart Rep. Barbara Lee’s likely departure is major news in Oakland and Alameda County. Potential successors include Assembly members Buffy Wicks and Mia Bonta; state Sen. Nancy Skinner; just-departed Mayor Libby Schaaf; and BART board member Lateefah Simon. There will be pressure to replace Lee with another Black woman. That could boost Bonta or Simon, who told the San Francisco Chronicle she was “seeking counsel.” Former Oakland Council Member Loren Taylor, who just narrowly lost the mayoral race, indicated interest.”

This election cycle is going to get quite interesting—and expensive. 

As I Was Saying by Craig Cheslog is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

2. Given what we currently know about the classified documents found in offices connected to President Joe Biden, far too much of the media’s coverage has been ridiculous. 

Too many reporters and media outlets are trying to earn bothsidesism bona fides by directly comparing the Biden document situation with former President Donald Trump’s refusal to return classified documents. (For example, The Banter’s Bob Cesca rightfully criticizes CBS News for their reporting in this post.) 

Professor Heather Cox Richardson does an excellent job of explaining why the two situations are very different: 

“While there is still a great deal we don’t know about either case, there are obvious and key differences between Biden’s and Trump’s handling of documents. 

In Trump’s case, NARA repeatedly asked him simply to return the documents it knew he had. He refused for a year, then let NARA staff recover 15 boxes that included documents marked classified, withholding others. After a subpoena, his lawyers turned over more documents and signed an affidavit saying that was all of them. But of course it wasn’t: the FBI’s August search of Mar-a-Lago recovered still more documents marked classified. Even now, none of Trump’s lawyers will certify that they have turned over all the documents they are required to. 

Trump is apparently being investigated for obstruction and for violations of the Espionage Act, which makes it a crime to withhold documents from a government official authorized to take them.”

3. Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day recaps the news from across the country regarding reproductive freedom and sexual and reproductive health care. Valenti opens with a court interpretation in Idaho that, even for these kinds of decisions, is horrific:

“As you know, Idaho’s Supreme Court upheld the state’s abortion ban—but they also offered some ‘clarifications’ on law that aren’t likely to do anything other than further confusion and suffering. For example, Idaho’s ban requires that doctors who legally terminate pregnancies (in the limited exceptions that the state allows to do so) in a way that “provide[s] the best opportunity for the unborn child to survive.” Like, what?

The court writes that doctors performing abortions “must remove that unborn child in a manner that provides the best opportunity for survival (e.g., vaginal delivery or cesarean delivery)” as opposed to a procedure like a D&C—even if the doctor understands that the fetus will not be viable—unless doing so would pose a “greater risk of the death of the pregnant woman.”

The court seems to be saying that the only legal way for doctors to perform abortions isn’t just about the circumstances of a patient’s pregnancy (rape, incest, health, etc) but the way in which that pregnancy is ended. So doctors aren’t actually allowed to perform abortion procedures, but instead must force a woman into a c-section or vaginal birth, unless doing that would make a woman more likely to die. Which goes beyond being nonsensical—it’s monstrous.”

The situation for women and people who can become pregnant continues to deteriorate in the states that have enacted forced-birth policies. We have to continue to pay attention. Valenti has more from Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and West Virginia. 

4. The Missouri State Legislature adopted a rules package to include a more strict dress code for women. As CNN explains, the new rule requires women “to cover their shoulders by wearing a jacket like a blazer, cardigan or knit blazer.”

Lyz Lenz named Missouri State Representative Anne Kelly (R) her Dingus of the Week for sponsoring this rule change. Lenz also explains why it’s important to point out these kinds of changes: 

“Missouri, which has some of the most lenient gun laws in America, restricted female lawmakers’ right to bare arms. 

Missouri is facing a teacher shortage crisis; a childcare crisis; a Josh Hawley crisis; crucial water quality issues; has a school that revived paddling; another school that is closing after numerous lawsuits over allegations of physical, mental, and sexual abuse; not to mention the Cardinals couldn’t win a World Series to save their lives; and Missouri has the words barbeque in America. Seriously, Kansas City barbeque is just meat with ketchup. Jack Stacks is the most overrated barbeque place in the universe. And I’m not even going to mention the number of left-hand exits in Kansas City.

Given all that, this week, Missouri State Rep. Anne Kelly, decided to address the real problems facing the state — the scourge of female lawmakers showing their arms. Kelly proposed a stricter dress code for women and women only. Apparently, in the “Show Me” state women can show everything except their God-given appendages.

Rules like this are designed to make women feel less worthy and make us constantly work harder to measure up to a standard that is always shifting.”

And I am sure there is more to come.

5. President Joe Biden wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week urging “Democrats and Republicans to come together to pass strong bipartisan legislation to hold Big Tech accountable” for how these companies handle our private information, violate civil rights, and increase polarization through the spread of disinformation. 

There has long been a need for government action on these fronts. But, as the Innocence Project’s Sarah Chu explains, we must also look at how police, prosecutors, and the government employ this data. That’s because what big tech collects—and the algorithms they use—can lead to wrongful convictions and other harms against innocent people. 

Chu writes, “We agree with President Biden that it’s time to set limits. And while the president emphasized the need for “clear limits on how companies can collect, use and share highly personal data — your internet history, your personal communications, your location, and your health, genetic and biometric data,” we believe Congress must go a step further.

Congress must make explicit in its anticipated bill that it will regulate how investigative tools are used in criminal investigations to protect people’s data and prevent wrongful convictions, including how data may or may not be collected, used, or stored in those investigations. Doing so would ensure the just application of algorithmic technologies far more efficiently than piecemeal regulation of individual technologies — especially given the constant proliferation of new tools.”

Quick Pitches: 

I remember when the media ran many, many stories about the price of gasoline before the election. Isn’t it interesting how it isn’t a story now that gas prices have dropped after the midterms? (Jack Holmes, Esquire)

Let’s never start accepting that this kind of action is normal in a free county.

Not school libraries. Public libraries.

— Morgan Fahey (@morganfahey) 12:24 AM ∙ Jan 14, 2023

The Pentagon plans to bring Ukrainian troops to the United States for training on the Patriot missile defense system. (Dan Lamothe, The Washington Post)

Major League Baseball announced on what day pitchers and catchers will report for each team’s spring training camps. I can’t wait for February 15 to get here. Go Cubs Go! (Major League Baseball) 

Sports accounted for 94 of the 100 most-watched telecasts in 2022. The National Football League had 82 of them. (Austin Karp, Sports Business Journal)

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Here are five things I have found interesting since my last post.

1. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) released his initial 2023-24 state budget. After several years of surpluses, this year’s budget projects a $22.5 billion shortfall. California’s revenue structure is quite volatile, so this kind of swing isn’t too surprising given what’s happened with the stock market and technology sector over the past year. 

Newsom proposes using a series of trigger cuts, deferrals, and reductions in planned one-time spending to balance the budget while protecting his core policy priorities. Newsom also suggests not using any of the $35.6 billion reserve “rainy day” funds in the state’s accounts to reach budget balance.  

The California Budget and Policy Center has an outstanding analysis of what the Governor proposed. It released its First Look: Understanding the Governor’s Proposed 2023-24 State Budget, which details the overall economic picture and what Newsom suggests for spending and policies to produce the required balanced state budget. This report provides a wealth of background information about the budget and the direction Newsom seeks to take the state. 

The release of the January budget starts a six-month dance between the Governor and Legislative leaders, who must make the compromises necessary so the Governor can sign the state budget by the Constitutionally mandated June 30 deadline. 

As I Was Saying by Craig Cheslog is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

2.

For @nytgraphics and @nytimes ongoing coverage of the storms in California, I took a look at two weeks of atmospheric rivers over the West Coast.

nytimes.com/article/califo…

— Scott Reinhard (@scottreinhard) 11:11 PM ∙ Jan 10, 2023

California has gotten a bunch of rain and snow over the past two weeks, but that doesn’t mean the state can stop worrying about its water supply. But the situation has improved, as the Bay Area News Group’s Paul Rogers writes, “For the first time in more than two years, the majority of California is no longer in a severe drought, the federal government reported Thursday, a dramatic turnaround following a series of powerful atmospheric river storms since Christmas.

Overall, 46% of California’s land area remains in severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly report put out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Only a month ago, on Dec. 6, it was 85%.”

Unfortunately, this wet start doesn’t mean California will end up with all the precipitation it needs to end the drought. CalMatters Alastair Bland reminds us that the state hasn’t seen many wet years recently: “After all, most years in the past 15 have produced an underwhelming amount of rainfall. Since the big water year of 2006, only three — 2011, 2017 and 2019 — have been notably wet. Many climate experts believe California’s predominant weather pattern in the future will be one of steady drought conditions broken periodically by very wet interludes.”

California’s weather patterns are likely to continue to move towards the extremes, with a series of arid years occasionally interrupted by very wet seasons. As The Atlantic’s Jacob Stern explains, “It’s no surprise that climate change has likely played a role in all of this. California has always had something of a “boom-or-bust hydrological economy,” Horton told me, but the booms are getting even wetter and the busts even drier.”

There is more precipitation to come!

The storm parade is not over for California.

Another 3 storm systems will sweep across the state over the next 7 days bringing another 2-5 inches of rain across much of the state.

The Sierra could see up to another 4-8 feet of snow.

— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) 10:18 PM ∙ Jan 12, 2023

3. BuzzFeed’s Melissa Segura profiles Chicago attorney Josh Tepfer, who has built an incredible career by successfully winning the exonerations of many wrongfully convicted people. 

Segura writes, “Tepfer’s representation has led to the exoneration of 288 wrongfully convicted people — making him among the most prolific exoneration attorneys since anyone began keeping track. Last August, he spearheaded what is believed to be the first mass exoneration of people convicted of murder, all of their cases hinging on confessions and witness statements that had been obtained by a now-retired police detective, Reynaldo Guevara, who used physical force and manipulation. In a single marathon day of court, Tepfer’s work helped wipe unjust convictions from the records of seven people who’d served a collective 174 years behind bars.”

We need to focus on how corrupt police officers, prosecutors, and judges harm innocent people around the country. We also need to make it easier for people to seek judicial relief when we discover new evidence or scientific advances that demonstrate how our judicial system made a horrible error. 

4. Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day recaps the news from across the country regarding reproductive freedom and sexual and reproductive health care. Here are some stories that she highlights: 

There is more coverage of the Alabama Attorney General spokesperson’s admission that the state is seeking to interpret older laws to jail women for abortion. Other states copy what Alabama starts, so we need to be ready for this idea to spread. 

Georgia is offering a $3,000 deduction for a fetus with a detectible heartbeat, but that’s running into implementation problems. Valenti writes, “because a fetus is not actually a person, the guidance has left all sorts of questions open about the deduction as it relates to pregnancy loss, what kind of medical records are necessary, privacy issues, etc. Most of all—the rule gives some insight into how confusing it will be as more states adopt fetal personhood measures (emphasis in original).”

5. It was free Thursday for Craig Calcaterra’s Cup of Coffee newsletter. While I subscribe mainly to read the baseball news, he also is a liberal living in Ohio. I appreciate his political writing as he analyzes his state’s relentless turn to the hard right. 

He’s been trying to warn people that the surprise election of an Ohio State House Speaker earlier this month is not about moderation or bipartisanship. Oh, it is so much more complicated. Yet national political writers are ignoring the context that led a portion of the state’s Republican caucus to abandon the person they tipped for Speaker just a few weeks ago. 

As Calcaterra explains, “But honestly, I cannot get over the fact that a national political columnist with serious academic credentials was allowed to characterize a situation in which a hardcore GOP megadonor made a large donation to a Democrat while simultaneously orchestrating a lurid sting operation which outed a closeted gay man in order to swing the Democratic coalition and some homophobic GOP reps behind a different candidate as “moderation.” 

I’ll understand if you want to scroll past the baseball news down to the Moderation update of Calcaterra’s newsletter to learn more. But the baseball writing is excellent too. 

Quick Pitches: 

Can’t wait for Monday when all the Republicans who’ve spent all year banning Dr MLK from the classroom suddenly remember to misquote him for Internet clout.

— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) 7:21 PM ∙ Jan 11, 2023

Elon Musk sets a Guinness World Record! But it’s for the largest loss of personal fortune in history, as Fortune magazine estimates he’s lost $165 billion of net worth from November 2021 to December 2022. But I am sure he meant to do that. (Faarea Masud, BBC Business)

Roger Bennett and the Men in Blazers’ team highlight what members of the United States Women’s and Men’s National Soccer Teams are doing over in European club play. (American States United)

I hope everyone listens to Chris Hayes. We can’t let them fool us like this again.

.@chrislhayes on Walgreens admitting the shoplifting threat was overstated:

“This is something everyone needs to bookmark in their minds the next time you hear giant corporations warning about a ‘rampant crime wave.’”

— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) 2:00 AM ∙ Jan 13, 2023

Thank you for reading As I Was Saying by Craig Cheslog. You can email me at craigcheslog@substack.com. Please help me spread the word about this newsletter by sharing this post via email or on the social media network of your choice. And if you haven’t already, please subscribe. Thank you!

Here are five things I have found interesting since my last post.

1. It is hard not to make a connection between the failed insurrection in Brazil on Sunday and what supporters of former President Donald Trump attempted at the United State Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, writes in Brazil’s Insurrection Reminds Us of the Power of Strongman Personality Cults: “In the Brazilian case, as in the U.S. of Donald Trump, the leader and his allies invested in years-long relentless disinformation campaigns designed to discredit their country’s electoral systems in the public mind. Personality cults create images of the leader as infallible, and preparing followers to see any setback to their hero as the result of nefarious external forces rigging the system against him is part of preserving his competency in their eyes. Having someone or something to blame—President Joe Biden or Lula as it may be—also keeps the personality cult alive by letting followers avoid acknowledging that their hero is a loser.”

And Trump’s personality cult is in some trouble after the losses suffered by his candidates in the midterm elections. As Ben-Ghiat explains, this photo of Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) refusing to take a call from the former president—facilitated by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)—during the Speaker of the House voting would have been hard to imagine just a few months ago. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, holds her smart phone with former US President Donald Trump on the line, as Rep. Matt Rosendale, a Republican from Montana, waves it off during a meeting of the 118th Congress in the House Chamber on Friday.

#SpeakerVote

— Al Drago (@Al_Drago) 4:28 AM ∙ Jan 7, 2023

The Guardian’s Moira Donegan notes that while many in the United States look to Europe for analogies to our history, we share more in common with the Latin American democracies to our south. 

She writes, “Like us, they were founded on early violence that casts long shadows over our subsequent attempts at equality and pluralism: chattel slavery and the dispossession and genocide of indigenous peoples. Like us, they are host to racially and religiously heterogenous populations, aspiring to national projects based not so much in shared ethnic identity as in shared ideals. And like us, these Latin American nations have an authoritarian streak, one that has historically been encouraged, both tacitly and explicitly, by the US itself.”

Donegan notes one key difference between how the United States and Brazil handled the insurrections sparked by their recent authoritarian presidents: Brazil is taking quick action to hold those responsible accountable. 

“But one massive difference is in how the Brazilians have responded to this threat to their democracy. In the aftermath of the January 6 violence, the Biden administration reportedly balked at pursuing an actual impeachment of Donald Trump, stymying Democrats in the House who wanted to pursue an aggressive accountability strategy; in the years since, the Department of Justice has repeatedly dragged its feet, passed the buck, and seemed unable or unwilling to do anything other than passively allow Trump and his inner circle to sabotage the democratic process with impunity.

Not so with the Brazilians. The new leftist president, Lula de Silva, immediately denounced the mob as “neo-fascists,” and was willing, with clarity and candor that would be unthinkable in an American politician, to honestly tell his countrymen that they cannot trust all of the police forces.”

The memory of a recent violent dictatorship does clarify what’s at stake when there is an attack on democracy. I hope people in the United States understand that the danger here is not over.

As I Was Saying by Craig Cheslog is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

2. The Hoarse Whisperer shared a remarkable piece of writing, using a toothache to open a conversation how financial hardship doesn’t just change the way one thinks—it rewires the mind. 

In this initial post, the writer explains how his life changed after he left a high-paying but unsatisfying career and was left to try to support a child after a 75 percent cut in income. 

“I postponed and canceled and postponed and canceled. Anything that could wait which affected only me waited. And “It can wait.” meant it would wait forever. There would never be a time when something that wasn’t a crisis when it arose and hadn’t become one would suddenly move to the front of the line.

If you have never had a protracted period of deep, serious, financial struggle, this may not make sense to you as a concept: 

Those decisions start as financial and then become psychological. Not emotional. Psychological. 

Barely getting by is at first a process – a budget exercise – but then it becomes a mindset until it literally rewires your very brain.

In the early going, you’re trying to spin plates while thinking you may be able to keep any from dropping. And then some drop. And them some more drop. And then something big and unexpected happens and you realize you have to choose a bunch to let drop.

And it is that last moment, the unexpected thing that forces you to have to choose a whole bunch of plates to let fall that changes things.”

The writer followed up with a postscript that responded to the comments responding to his initial article. People wanted more of the story. People wanted to know why the writer hadn’t made “better” choices. That question misses the point. 

“My list is not the worst in the world. Worse than some. Not as bad as others.

But misery is not an Olympic event. No one needs to earn a gold medal in hardship to prove they have been sufficiently “hard done by” (as my late British mother-in-law would say) to have bottomed out.

We are all one phone call away from our lives coming apart at the seams. We are all – every one of us – just one single domino away from a cascade over months or years that pulls all of the gravel from under our feet.”

3. Adam Johnson at The Column reacts to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ decision to appoint Christopher Rufo to the board of trustees of the New School in Florida. Rufo is one of the nation’s leading homophobes and transphobes and is also the person who created a fake—but electorally effective—controversy about critical race theory. 

Johnson shows how the mainstream media uses euphemisms to avoid having to discuss the genocidal campaign conservative activists are waging against members of the LGBTQ community. He explains:

“One popular way of obscuring the power dynamics and harm being waged against vulnerable populations is to discuss not humans, or victims, or those under assault, but “issues” to be “opposed.” Transgender people’s identity is an “issue” to be “debated” and, thus, abstract; its victims are not people with lives and parents and friends and partners and humanity—they are simply the battlegrounds for these so-called “gender wars.” No one is subject to incitement campaigns, attacks in the public sphere, or discrimination. There’s no oppressor and oppressed, there is simply a debate club with differing opinions. The human stakes are lost, and the cruelty and dehumanization being promoted by the likes of DeSantis and Rufo is obscured in favor of anodyne-sounding policy “issues.”

Johnson explains four ways reporters obscure the power dynamics and removes the humanity of the people targeted from this conversation. We must remember the lives at stake here. 

4. The World Meteorological Organization announced that the “ozone layer is on track to recover within four decades, with the global phaseout of ozone-depleting chemicals already benefitting efforts to mitigate climate change.” 

This outcome was not inevitable. It was possible only because of the efforts of activists to get governments to take decisive action to phase out the use of the substances that were harming the ozone layer.  

Yes! Collective action can work to solve major global problems. As the Intelligencer’s Chas Denner writes, “The saving of the ozone layer can and should give everyone hope that such movements (and international treaties) are possible, worthwhile, and effective, particularly as the world faces a far more complex and intimidating threat with human-driven climate change.”

5. The Atlantic Hockey Association, a Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Conference, named Army West Point Senior Associate Athletic Trainer Rachel Leahy as its Player of the Week. Non-players don’t usually receive this kind of recognition, but Leahy saved the life of Army forward Eric Huss during a game against Sacred Heart last week. 

As Atlantic Hockey’s press release explains, “Army West Point Athletic Trainer Rachel Leahy’s quick actions when Black Knight junior Eric Huss suffered a throat laceration in Thursday’s Army-Sacred Heart game prevented a serious injury from becoming catastrophic. Leahy was the first person to Huss after the forward was cut by an inadvertent skate blade and remained by his side to control the bleeding from the time they left the ice until Huss arrived at the hospital and entered the emergency room. Huss underwent surgery Thursday evening to close the wound and is expected to make a full recovery from his injury.”

College Hockey News provides more details about the incident and what Leahy had to do to save Huss’ life on the ice. Kudos to those at Atlantic Hockey who thought to recognize Leahy in this fashion. 

Quick Pitches: 

The United Nations reported that in 2021 five million children died before age five, with 47 percent before one month of age. Activists believe better healthcare access and support for pregnant people could significantly lower this rate. (Sarah Johnson, The Guardian)

Puck’s Teddy Schleifer reports about his in-person interview with FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried. It’s a fascinating conversation, but why is he still talking to reporters? (Teddy Schleifer, Puck)

Judd Legum offers more information about the landmark Federal Trade Commission proposed rule to ban noncompete clauses. (Judd Legum, Popular Information)

California has gotten a bit of snow the past couple of weeks. But the drought isn’t over.

Snow continues to pile up across the #Sierra during these series of storms since Christmas Day, now sitting at 215% of avg for this date. Also, the snowpack typically peaks April 1st across the Sierra, and the state now sits at 94% of its April 1st avg! Data from: @CA_DWR #CAwx

— NWS California-Nevada RFC (@NWSCNRFC) 11:21 PM ∙ Jan 10, 2023

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Thank you for reading As I Was Saying by Craig Cheslog. You can email me at craigcheslog@substack.com. Please help me spread the word about this newsletter by sharing this post via email or on the social media network of your choice. And if you haven’t already, please subscribe. Thank you!

1. Why are some stories covered only once and dropped by the media, but others receive constant coverage? Parker Malloy at The Present Age examines this critical question in Flooding the Zone with Narrative, which reacts to this Alec Karakatsanis’ article about the decisions editors make about what they publish.

Malloy writes: “Why are some issues easily conceptualized as a single news story — ‘the debtors’ prison story’ — while other stories are seen as continuously plentiful sources of daily news to be covered from the same and different angles each night, such as the ‘surge in shoplifting’?”

This! This has been one of my biggest frustrations with the news world. The papers pick and choose which topics get relentless and disproportionate coverage, and which topics are printed and immediately forgotten, never allowed to truly become “stories.”  

Oh yes, I feel this frustration. These editorial choices impact elections and how governments spend our tax money (as we saw last year with the relentless coverage of the overblown shoplifting narrative). I wish the editors and publishers who make these decisions were open to conversations about how this dynamic works.

As I Was Saying by Craig Cheslog is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

2. Imagine your partner or someone close to you dying suddenly and then having to deal with radical anti-vax activists publicly while mourning. 

Dr. Céline Gounder explains what she’s faced after the loss of her husband, the late soccer journalist Grant Wahl, to a ruptured aortic aneurysm while he was covering the recent Men’s World Cup in Qatar. (Wahl was one of my favorite writers and journalists, and his death deeply impacted many people.) Because Grounder is an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist who has been a prominent voice during this Covid pandemic, anti-vaxxers leaped to blame the vaccine—and Grounder—for Wahl’s death. The messages they sent to her were nothing short of evil. 

She writes, “I knew that disinformation purveyors would blame Grant’s death on Covid vaccines, and I knew what tactics they would use to do so. I also knew that debunking what these people believe head-on in public risks giving them the attention they crave and invites further trolling. But this situation was different from the many others I’d dealt with as an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist or while serving on the Biden-Harris transition Covid Advisory Board. This was my Grant, and I needed to know what had happened to him. And I knew I had to share that information publicly: Pairing facts with empathy is the best way to disempower trolls.”

Grounder explains that she felt compelled to write about what she’s faced after the anti-vax community tried to blame Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s collapse during a game last week on Covid vaccines. She writes, “When disinformation profiteers leverage tragedies like Grant’s and Mr. Hamlin’s for their personal gain, they retraumatize families, compromise our ability to interpret information and distinguish truth from lies and put all of us at risk.”

And that’s why we should be concerned about these dynamics and their impact on people and society. 

3. Republican politicians like to claim that the goal of their forced birth policies is not to jail the women who may seek abortions. That’s always been a lie, and now another Republican has admitted it. 

Jessica Valenti explains how the Alabama Attorney General’s office plans to work around this promise. She writes, “In the worst wink-wink-nudge-nudge statement I’ve seen in a long time, the Alabama AG’s office told a conservative reporter that just because the abortion ban won’t let them arrest women, it doesn’t mean that the state can’t use other laws to put women behind bars: A spokesperson for Marshall told 1819 News this weekend that even though the Human Life Protection Act exempts women from being prosecuted, it “does not provide an across-the-board exemption from all criminal laws, including the chemical-endangerment law—which the Alabama Supreme Court has affirmed and reaffirmed protects unborn children. (emphasis added)”

4. I’m not surprised by this one: Popular Information’s Judd Legum follows up on the story about Vicki Baggett, the Florida teacher seeking to have 150 books removed from school libraries under the Stop WOKE Act that Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law last April. 

Legum writes, “While Baggett claims she is keeping inappropriate content away from children, her former and current students tell Popular Information that Baggett openly promoted racist and homophobic beliefs in class.”

That adds some context for why Baggett objects to books like When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball. 

5. Dave Eggers writes in the New Yorker about the Profound Defiance of Daily Life in Kyiv, starting with a visit to the National Museum of the History of Ukraine. While waiting for their tour to start, their guide approached to ask Eggers and the writer Peter Godwin to go to the basement because of an air raid. The guide received the notification from an app on her smartphone. 

Eggers writes, “The technology is now so advanced that Ukrainian citizens can know, more or less in real time, where the Russian missiles are coming from and generally where they’re going. In this case, Russia had just launched some seventy missiles, headed to sites all over Ukraine. The assumption was that they were directed at power substations, meant to cripple the country’s electrical grid. Vladimir Putin’s recent strategy has been to knock out the power in the depth of winter in hopes of breaking the spirits of everyday Ukrainians.

So far this strategy has not worked.”

People who believe in democracy should be glad that’s the case. 

Thank you for reading As I Was Saying by Craig Cheslog. Help me spread the word about this newsletter by sharing this post via email or on the social media network of your choice.

Quick Pitches: 

Las Vegas Raiders Owner Mark Davis is apparently embarrassed that visiting fans so often outnumber Raiders fans at their new stadium in Las Vegas. I thought taking the money from people visiting Las Vegas for a weekend of gambling and football was why he left his team’s devoted following in Oakland, though? (RaidersBeat.com)

Pocket reminded me of this Guardian commentary by Sally Denton asking Why Is So Little Known About the 1930s Coup Attempt Against FDR? That’s a good question. (Pocket)

Orange Unified School District’s new radical conservative board majority fired its respected Superintendent with no explanation on a day’s notice. I’m glad voters in my area took this threat seriously in last year’s election. (John Fensterwald, EdSource)

Charlie Pierce wonders why everyone has forgotten that Democrats now have subpoena power in the Senate. Oh yes, I would love to see some tit-for-tat. He writes, “I find positively delicious the prospect of hauling Jared Kushner in front of the Senate for every time Hunter Biden is summoned to the Clown Show. I know it’s not exactly good government, but that ship sailed over the horizon last weekend. And tempering the unruly temperament of the House is actually what the Senate was originally designed to do.” (Charlie Pierce, Esquire)

Don’t they know they’re supposed to let them return to their luxury hotels and fly home — then wait a year to ask the public to look at grainy internet photos to find them?

— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) 7:58 PM ∙ Jan 9, 2023

Today’s Thought: 

“When only the extremists are willing to take a stand, only the extremists will win. The GOP is a hostage to its most irresponsible members because it’s too frightened to confront them.”—Noah Bertlatsky, Public Notice (1/9/23).

1. Our Constitution has all kinds of interesting (and scary) loopholes and inconsistencies. I often think about how our leaders failed after 9/11 to enact continuity of government provisions to ensure the House of Representatives could convene in the wake of a successful attack that killed more than half of its members.

The start of the 118th Congress has highlighted a new example: no entity is responsible for ensuring that people running for office are actually eligible to run. We can thank the infamous Rep. George Santos (R-NY) for spotlighting this challenge. 

Given all of the lies Santos has told, Vice’s Tim Marchman asks: “Of the many questions surrounding serial fabulist George Santos as he joins the new Congress, one of the most basic is also one of the hardest to answer conclusively: Has he been a U.S. citizen for seven years, one of the three requirements for the job specifically listed in the Constitution?” 

Marchman takes us on a journey from the Clerk of the House of Representatives, the House Ethics Committee, the House Administration Committee, to the New York State Board of Elections and finds that no one believes they have a responsibility to determine eligibility. I doubt the new Speaker of the House will prioritize fixing this issue. 

As I Was Saying by Craig Cheslog is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

2. Speaking of Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), it took 15 ballots, but he is finally the Speaker of the House. In his Breaking the News Substack, James Fallows notes that Speaker of the House is part of “a category of jobs for which the greatest day is the day your appointment is announced.” 

Fallows is a former presidential speechwriter and often explains what politicians are trying to do with a speech—and whether or not they were successful. In this post, Fallows looks at the speeches made by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Speaker McCarthy right after the final Speaker vote. 

Jeffries’ speech was terrific, and people are going to focus on the A-to-Z rundown of values that closed it (you can watch his speech here from C-SPAN). That’s a sign of a great address! Fallows explains the risks Jeffries took and why they paid off. “By the end of this, Jeffries was having fun, and much of the audience was too. What would he do for Q? And … X? It didn’t go on too long, it was appropriate for the time of night and place in history, it was both sober and jokey, and it made his point. Jeffries never needs to recite this list again, because other people will quote it. He had his opportunity, and he used it.” 

Fallows then examines Speaker McCarthy’s speech (you can watch his speech here from C-SPAN). Fallows writes that McCarthy didn’t mention many of the conspiracy theories that were a significant part of his colleagues’ speeches to nominate him (there was no mention of a stolen election lie here). He even avoided the Newt Gingrich/Frank Luntz intentionally disrespectful use of Democrat (rather than Democratic) as an adjective in his remarks. I wish McCarthy could lead the House based more on his acceptance speech, but the MAGA rebels extracted such a high price for their votes to ensure he couldn’t. The situation is about to get much worse for McCarthy and our nation. 

3. Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day recaps the news from across the country regarding reproductive freedom and sexual and reproductive health care. Today Valenti explains her frustration with the reporting about abortion medication: “[t]he article, an explainer about abortion medication and the new rules around the pills, goes out of its way to tell readers that abortion medication is illegal in Tennessee, but doesn’t mention—even once—that having the pills shipped to you is not illegal. In fact, the Department of Justice reiterated as much just this week! Mainstream media outlets—especially those in anti-choice states—need to do better for their female readers.” Valenti also shares stories about OBGYN residents who have to leave red states to complete their training because of these bans and once again explains why exceptions to abortion bans may provide political cover for Republican politicians but don’t help people who can become pregnant. 

4. Dr. Joanne B. Freeman is an expert on the history of political violence in the United States, and reading her book The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War was one of my 2022 highlights. So I am listening as she tells us why we should take the chaos we just saw with the Speaker of the House election seriously in this New York Times commentary (gift article). 

Freeman explains how the 133-ballot Speakership debate of 1855-56 reflected the fractions of the nation leading up to the Civil War. Moving back to what we experienced over the past week, Freeman writes: 

“The House has elected a speaker, but that won’t put an end to the internecine Republican battles. They will continue, entangling Congress and stymieing national politics in the process. Politics is a team sport that requires captains, congressional politics, even more so. Today’s congressional Republicans are not a team; they have no captain and they have displayed their failings for all the world to see.

In effect, we’re witnessing the rupture of the Republican Party, the ultimate outcome of Republicans’ continuing failure to stand up to the extremism in their ranks. In choosing to remain silent in the face of their right wing’s politics of destruction, they have essentially endorsed it. Their silence in the face of Donald Trump’s lies and his election loss denial did much the same, laying the groundwork for the upheaval that we’re watching now.”

5. How many innocent people will police arrest because the algorithms behind facial recognition software are notoriously bad when identifying people of color and women? As Gizmodo’s Thomas Germain explains, “Randall Reid says he’s never even been to Louisiana, much less stolen $10,000 worth of Chanel and Louis Vuitton handbags there. That didn’t stop police from arresting the 28-year-old Georgia resident for the theft, committed in a New Orleans suburb, based on an algorithmic guess at what his face looked like. Reid was on the way to a belated Thanksgiving dinner with his mother when the cops picked him up, three states and seven hours away from the scene of the crime. He was locked up for nearly a week.” 

The biases in facial recognition are well known, but the use of the technology is everywhere. What we don’t have are rules for its use. Worse, as Germain writes, efforts to enact regulations stalled out as crime grew as a campaign issue: “This time last year, it seemed like there was a growing movement to ban law enforcement’s use of technology, with legislatures across the country instituting a facial recognition prohibition for their police forces. But that movement lost steam, and a number of states and cities quietly undid their face recognition bans, including California, Virginia, and—you guessed it—New Orleans.”

Quick Pitches: 

I love the Bay Lights art installation on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. They are coming down in March unless philanthropists donate $11 million for an upgraded version. I hope the nonprofit behind this work is successful in raising the money required to keep it going. (Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle)

Last summer, Walgreens was one of the chain stores that raised alarms about thefts from their stores. These claims became part of the campaign that led to a backlash against liberal District Attorneys (like the recall of San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin) and the efforts to redirect a fraction of law enforcement funding to social services. Guess what? “A major US drugstore chain that supposedly experienced a surge in shoplifting last year – fanning the flames of conservative outrage over a purported spike in crime and disorder – said on Thursday that it might have overstated the problem.” Weird how that happens. (Victoria Bekiempis, The Guardian)

Reporters need to do a better job when discussing the debt ceiling.

See downthread. Turns out @GStephanopoulos didn’t follow up to make @GovChristie’s bad faith clear. Will be really important for non-Fox hosts to be better at presenting the plain, one-sided extremism of GOP default threats, especially as we’ve been down this road so many times.

— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) 9:35 PM ∙ Jan 8, 2023

Bothsidesism harms many democracies. 

The problem with ‘balanced’ reporting.

— Christian Guthier (@oxford_guthier) 2:57 PM ∙ Jan 5, 2023

Today’s Thought: 

“Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.”—Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny.

1. Today is the second anniversary of a violent insurrection against the United States government. As the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol explained, Former President Donald J. Trump and his allies planned this attack against our Constitution in order to prevent the peaceful transfer of power for the first time since the Civil War. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch urges us to see the connection between the events of that day to the still incomplete Speaker of the House election. He writes, “In an alternate timeline, the news in this foggy first week of the new year might be dominated by anniversary journalism, about what we’ve learned since the shock of Jan. 6, 2021, to prevent something like that from ever happening again. Instead, America is again transfixed by utter chaos echoing across those exact same marble corridors of the U.S. Capitol. The only difference is that in this new national horror show, the calls are coming from inside the House. We can’t move on, let alone learn, from 2021′s insurrection when that uprising — crippling our government in the name of celebrity fascism — never ended.”

2 yrs ago: Jan 6, 5:04pm, I took this photo of law enforcement using flash bang grenades & tear gas on a violent mob trying to break into the U.S. Capitol. It was hr 4 in my gas mask, helmet & bulletproof vest photographing hand-to-hand combat between police & U.S. citizens. 1/9

— Leah Millis (@LeahMillis) 12:34 PM ∙ Jan 6, 2023

2. The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday proposed a rule prohibiting employers from imposing noncompete clauses on their workers. The FTC estimates this rule would help 30 million Americans and increase wages by nearly $300 billion annually. President Biden has been critical of noncompete clauses for decades, and he issued an executive order last July encouraging the FTC to curtail their use. Semafor’s Jordan Weissmann noted how important this action could be: “With all due respect to Kevin McCarthy’s wild odyssey to become speaker, this might actually be the most consequential thing that happens in Washington today. The action will either change the face of labor rights or lay the groundwork for a high-stakes showdown over the FTC’s power to shape the rules of antitrust.” Weissmann explains that the issue will likely end up in court, with representatives of the business lobby announcing their opposition to the FTC’s action. Initially reserved for executives, criticism of noncompete clauses rose when it became apparent that many hourly workers—infamously including Jimmy John’s sandwich makers—were subject to them. This proposed rule is the kind of significant policy decision liberals hoped to see from FTC Chair Lina Khan. 

As I Was Saying by Craig Cheslog is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

3. James Fallows, the journalist and one-time presidential speech writer, highlights another outstanding speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his Breaking the News Substack. Fallows writes, “Two weeks ago I wrote about the remarkable care and eloquence of Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. Four days ago, on New Year’s Eve, Zelensky released a 17-minute video presentation, so exactly timed that he ended with “Happy New Year” greetings a few seconds before the clock reached midnight in his home country.” Fallows analyzes the English version of Zelenskyy’s speech, noting how his use of language, stagecraft, and skill as an orator again rises to the moment. Fallows writes, “Is this acting? Yes. Franklin Roosevelt was acting when he looked jaunty and confident while unable to walk and in severe pain. Theodore Roosevelt was acting when he gave a speech in Milwaukee in 1912 just after being shot in the chest. Performance consistent with values is admirable rather than meretricious. This was very well staged.” Such skill is a crucial quality for a wartime leader. 

4. Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day recaps the news from across the country regarding reproductive freedom and sexual and reproductive health care. There is good news to share as South Carolina’s Supreme Court rules that the state’s abortion ban is unconstitutional. We also learn that CVS and Walgreens will carry and sell abortion medication under the new FDA regulations. Valenti also covers the proposals for additional restrictions discussed in Utah, Nebraska, and Georgia.

5. Puck’s Tina Nguyen has some of the best sources among MAGA Republicans. In McCarthy’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold (gift article), Nguyen dives into what is happening behind the scenes as Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) loses vote after vote in his quest to become Speaker of the House. I don’t see how this ends well for him because, for the 20 Republicans who oppose McCarthy, this is personal. As Nguyen writes, “But the night before Thursday’s vote, the strategist close to the 20 predicted that these concessions would do nothing to change the bloc’s position. “Some of the members of the 20 are in a position now where, in order for the history books to show that they did anything, [the speaker] has to be another person. And that’s why I think that the rules, concessions and stuff has not really changed any of the dynamics.” The 20 do not trust him because they believe McCarthy lacks any strong political beliefs, financially supported moderate candidates in the primaries, didn’t help certain MAGA candidates in the general election, and initially criticized former President Trump after the insurrection. So, according to Nguyen, we shouldn’t expect a resolution soon unless McCarthy steps down. She writes, “For now, according to my conversations with allies of the 20, they’re dug in for the long haul. “It could go to next week. It could go to the week after,” a source with knowledge of the negotiations told me last night, seeming to enjoy the unfolding drama. “We’ll figure it out. We’re having fun. (emphasis added)” And I am glad that Twitter’s Allwftopic reminded us that it isn’t just the MAGA 20 who are responsible for what is happening: “All the Republicans are responsible for this madness. Republicans who gerrymandered districts for MAGA Republicans, Republicans controlled Supreme Court who helped them gerrymander those districts for MAGA Republicans, and McCarthy for jumping in bed with these MAGA Republicans.”

Quick Pitches: 

The FBI has increased the reward for information about the pipe bombs placed near the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the January 6 insurrection. Why did it take this long? (Kelly Hooper, Politico)

The ongoing U.S. Speaker of the House election provides an excellent excuse to remember the shenanigans involving the California Assembly Speaker nearly 30 years ago. Willie Brown made surprising things happen. (Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Orange County Register)

Who are the most underrated players in Major League history? Joe Posnanski creates a formula to try to answer this difficult question. A few of them deserve to the in the Hall of Fame. (Joe Posnanski, Joe Blogs)

Over 20 trillion gallons of water are expected to fall across California over the next 2 weeks.

That’s enough water to cover a flat surface the size of California in over half a foot of water.

— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) 7:00 PM ∙ Jan 5, 2023

Today’s Thought: 

“History can be erased in ways other than by force of arms. It can be erased by accumulated myth. It can be erased by layer after layer of stony denial. And it can be erased by popular consensus, tacit or otherwise. But history erased is history weaponized, and it will have its day, one way or the other, until it is accorded the respect it is due.”—Charles P. Pierce.

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Here are five things I have found interesting since my last post.

1. Perhaps after this Speaker of the House election, we will see reporters more open to writing “Republicans in disarray” stories? Ah, a person can dream. I think New York’s Ed Kilgore makes an important observation about the dynamics we are watching: “You may have heard the old saying about academic politics being especially vicious because the stakes are so low. In many respects, that thought also applies to the bitter fight underway for control of the U.S. House Republican Conference. Whether right-wing rebels succeed or fail in once again derailing Kevin McCarthy’s lifelong ambition to become Speaker, House Republicans will have relatively little power in the current Congress to do much of anything other than cutting demonstrative capers and holding show-trial investigations of various fever-swamp rabbit holes. That’s important to understand before falling prey to the prevailing narrative of McCarthy as a sort of paragon of civilization battling to stave off the vandals of the House Freedom Caucus.” Kilgore explains that the policy differences here are minor—nothing changes whether or not McCarthy is elected. The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols emphasizes this point, “But McCarthy’s misery is secondary to the real story behind the hijinks of the Republican defectors tormenting their own leader. McCarthy and others have asked what the rebels want—but they do not understand that the rebels have no tangible goals. A significant part of the Republican Party, and especially its base, now lives in a post-policy world. Governing is nothing. The show is everything.” This situation shouldn’t be surprising given that the Republican Party did not have a platform going into the 2020 election. And, as Esquire’s Charlie Pierce explains, McCarthy will look even lamer if he has to move out of the Speaker’s offices if his move-in power move to make his election appear inevitable fails. 

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2. New York’s Justine van der Leun profiles Kelly Harnett and demonstrates how often our criminal justice harshly sentences women for crimes committed by their partners, friends, or spouses. After being charged with murder for being present as her abusive boyfriend killed someone, Harnett became a jailhouse lawyer and learned enough to help other people with their cases. Van der Leun writes, “Harnett became focused on the ways in which the criminal legal system targeted women and specifically survivors of abuse like herself. She discovered that nearly all her friends inside had been abused before they came to prison and that, for most, the abuse was in some way directly connected to their incarceration. “I looked around and thought, If it wasn’t for her abuser, she wouldn’t be here. And if it wasn’t for her abuser, she wouldn’t be here,” she said. There were about 30 women in the room. Harnett envisioned releasing everyone who had a crime related to enduring abuse: In her mind’s eye, the room emptied out; just two remained.” While Harnett learns about New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, which gives judges the discretion to sentence domestic violence survivors convicted of crimes related to their abuse to shorter terms, it takes her years to seek that remedy for herself. Harnett’s story has its twists and turns, but it highlights how difficult it is for people who have been convicted to get their cases reviewed when new evidence comes to light. 

3. Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day recaps the news from across the country regarding reproductive freedom and sexual and reproductive health care. We learn that Texas teenagers can no longer get birth control without permission from their parents, a situation even more alarming given how few students in that state take health classes. Kansas legislators are trying to figure out how to restrict abortion rights despite a vote of the public last November. The FDA finally changed the rules around abortion medication to allow retail pharmacies to dispense the pills. Abortion medication is one of the new areas where forced-birth conservatives are focusing their attacks on these rights. 

4. It was a sad day for the United States Men’s National Soccer Team’s fans as we saw two of the nation’s most prominent soccer families descend into a Shakespearian-level tragedy. We witnessed a decades-long relationship unravel in public, a cleavage seemingly sparked over the lack of playing time one of those old friends gave to his other friend’s son at the recent Men’s World Cup. As ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle and Kyle Bonagura explain, “Danielle Reyna, wife of former United States men’s national team captain Claudio and mother of current international player Gio, says she told U.S. Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart about USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter’s past domestic violence incident because she was frustrated by comments made about her son after the team’s elimination from the 2022 World Cup.” Danielle Reyna was aware of the domestic violence incident because the victim was her college roommate—Rosalind Berhalter, the then-girlfriend, and the current wife, of coach Gregg Berhalter. As Men in Blazers’ Roger Bennett explained in a tweet, “Heartbreaking: A childhood friendship forged between 2 Jersey kids who grew up playing on same club team, going on to rep US at World Cups, marry 2 elite College teammates, then fracture decades of trust and history as bloodlines drawn over next generation. Dark day for our Sport.” Bennett also hosted an emergency podcast to try to put all of this into perspective. U.S. Soccer needs to act transparently and quickly as it finishes its investigations. I feel for Rosalind Berhalter here, as this personal situation became public without her permission. This controversy provides another reminder that victims must be allowed to control their stories.  

5. The Long Game’s Molly Knight examines how the horrific injury Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered on Monday night exposes the best and worst of human reactions. She writes, “While millions of viewers sat stunned and horrified as NFL medics delivered life-saving CPR and an AED defibrillator, Hamlin’s teammates openly wept. I knew it was bad and wanted more information, so I made the mistake of opening Twitter. I do not follow monsters or conspiracy theorists on there. But the problem is, a lot of good people I do follow retweet terrible takes from soulless trolls to dunk on them or shame them into either re-thinking their positions or simply deleting the offending tweets. I used to do this, too. Unfortunately, hurting people and/or getting a rise out of them only emboldens these trolls to accelerate their cravenness, and has the reverse intended effect of amplifying their noxious views to those who may be vulnerable to conspiracy theories.” The anti-vaxxers had quite a moment (again) spreading their misinformation and lies. This situation is personal for Knight because she suffered severe post-COVID symptoms and is, as she notes, a woman working in sports. But Knight also observed that another part of the community came together and donated to Hamlin’s GoFundMe for a toy drive in a show of support. The original goal was $2,500. That effort has now raised over $7 million. I look forward to Hamlin being able to shape how these donations change lives after he recovers. 

Quick Pitches: 

Two years ago today, former President Donal Trump told a Georgia rally, “I hope Mike Pence comes through for us. I have to tell you … of course if he doesn’t come through, I don’t like him quite as much.” Hopefully, the Department of Justice will take note. (Aaron Rupar, Twitter)

California Matters’ Sameea Kamal and Jeremia Kimelman put together an excellent feature explaining how California’s state government works. 

A baseball blindspot: where are the women umpires? That’s an excellent question, and given the umpire shortage, one MLB must address. (Bill Pruden, Here’s the Pitch)

English soccer star David Beckham surprised many when he came to the United States to play in Major League Soccer at the end of his career. Here’s how he turned that contract into over $500 million. (Joseph Pompliano, Huddle Up)

Most people use Google for their web searches. Microsoft’s Bing search engine has lagged well behind. But now Bing may be able to take a significant step forward by integrating ChatGPT artificial intelligence into its search results. Might we see a new level of competition in this space? (Tom Warren, The Verge)

Honestly, The USMNT tearing itself apart because a dad was angry about his kid’s playing time really is the best example we could give to the world of American Soccer.

— PodKATT (@valleyshook) January”> 6:25 PM ∙ Jan 4, 2023

Today’s Thought: 

“What they’re really interested in is chaos…They want to throw sand in the gears of the hated federal government until it fails and they’ve finally proved that it’s beyond saving.

Every time they vote down a bill, they get another invitation to go on Fox News or talk radio. It’s a narcissistic—and dangerous—feedback loop.”

—Former Speaker of the House John Boehner, from On the House: A Washington Memoir

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1. Medical staff gave Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin CPR for nine minutes after he collapsed with cardiac arrest during Monday night’s NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He left the field in an ambulance while a national television audience—and players and coaches from both teams—watched. The latest report as I write this has Hamlin still in critical condition. The Nation’s Dave Zirin examines how the NFL’s leadership failed by initially signaling they would restart the game after Hamlin almost died on the field in The NFL Just Showed the World What It Thinks of Its Players. “But the players and coaches on the Bengals and Bills had seen enough and they refused to “play.” While the league was still twiddling its thumbs, coaches were meeting, players were getting dressed, and, at their behest, the game would be postponed. It’s important to note that the league only called the game after player reps from both teams contacted the union, the NFLPA, which informed the league that the game was done. This was a workplace action. Participants exercised their collective power and demanded that their trauma, their grief, their very humanity be recognized.” Zirin rightly calls upon the NFL owners to fire Commissioner Roger Godell over his latest failure of compassion and leadership. I am also stunned that the NFL (and perhaps other major sports leagues) do not have a protocol for this kind of medical situation after the justified criticism aimed last summer at the European soccer body UEFA after Danish star Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest in a game against Finland. Why wasn’t the NFL prepared?

2. ProPublica’s Daniel Golden shares an investigation demonstrating how untenured faculty in Florida universities are canceling classes because of fear officials could fire them in the wake of new laws prohibiting the teaching of critical race theory. “A month before the fall 2022 semester was set to start, he scrapped both courses. Students scrambled to register for other classes. “It didn’t seem like it was worth the risk,” said Cox, who taught a graduate course on inequality and education instead. “I’m completely unprotected.” He added, “Somebody who’s not even in the class could come after me. Somebody sees the course catalog, complains to a legislator — next thing I know, I’m out of a job.” This result is what Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the supporters of the anti-CRT laws wanted to see. The students and untenured faculty are facing ongoing consequences. 

3. Should you have the right to repair the electronics you purchase without returning them to the manufacturer? New York’s Chris Stanton updates us on the gains made by the right-to-repair movement in the face of opposition from companies like Apple after New York state became the latest to pass one of these laws. “Dubbed the Digital Fair Repair Act, the bill centers microchip-powered devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops. When it goes into effect on July 1, 2023, the law will require manufacturers to supply consumers and independent repair shops in New York with the tools, parts, and manuals required to fix their devices at a reasonable cost, effectively democratizing resources that manufacturers have increasingly restricted to their own repair networks. To its supporters, the fact that the bill received bipartisan support in Albany offers further proof of the right-to-repair movement’s broad appeal — as a cost-saving initiative for consumers; a lifeline for independent repair businesses; and a step toward reducing e-waste, a fast-growing and notoriously toxic waste stream.” A similar bill in California died in the Senate Appropriations Committee last May. I hope to see it revived as the new California Legislature begins its session. 

4. Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day recaps the news from across the country regarding reproductive freedom and sexual and reproductive health care. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is planning to introduce 12-week abortion ban legislation; a bill in North Dakota would require doctors to prove rape, incest, health, and life exceptions in court; and anti-abortion activists in Georgia are seeking to ban abortion medication. Also worth watching: some national forced pregnancy groups are furious with former President Donald Trump for his comments blaming their extreme views for the GOP’s underperformance in the 2022 elections. 

5. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes one of my favorite Substacks because he covers many political and cultural issues with wisdom and insight. He begins his most recent newsletter with a thoughtful message explaining his point of view. “Most of the issues I write about concern power, especially those who crave it and abuse it—always at the expense of others. The struggle for civil rights—whether based on race, gender, LGBTQ+, ethnic origin, or religion—is always about those with power and money trying to suppress those without. That’s how they keep their power and money. But in a democracy, they can’t do it alone, they need to enlist followers, usually those without power and money who greedily will do anything to get it, or those who blindly worship those who have it.” It is so important to recognize and understand these dynamics. 

Quick Pitches: 

Happy perihelion day! At 11:17 a.m. eastern time on Wednesday, January 4, the Earth will be at the point in its orbit where our planet is closest to the sun. (Phil Plait, Bad Astronomy)

The United States military received $858 billion in the recently passed omnibus bill—including billions more than the Pentagon requested. Those 770 federal lobbyists for the defense industry are effective. (Judd Legum, Popular Information)

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Here are five things I have found interesting since my last post:

1. It has been tricky for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to secure the votes needed to become the next Speaker of the House because it is impossible to govern in a coalition with nihilists. David R. Lurie provides this helpful overview of how the House GOP got here, starting with the creation of the Freedom Caucus. Given the GOP’s small majority, McCarthy has been trying to negotiate with people who aren’t interested in governing. As Lurie writes, “Indeed, extremists’ embrace of efforts to weaken the power of their own congressional leadership — and more importantly, their aggressive efforts to undermine democracy itself — evince a single-minded effort to undermine public confidence in the institutions of government.” Lurie rightly cautions liberals not to celebrate this dysfunction because “[t]he cost to the country, and indeed the world, arising from such a decomposition of governance in Congress could be extremely high.”

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2. Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day recaps the news from across the country regarding reproductive freedom and sexual and reproductive health care. One of the stories Valenti shares is one out of Arizona, where the state’s Department of Corrections is forcibly inducing the labor of incarcerated pregnant women. As Valenti writes, “Last week I wrote about my fear that abortion bans wouldn’t just impact the medical care of those who need abortions—but pregnant patients set to give birth whose treatment might change because of laws requiring equal care to women and fetuses. Though the Department of Corrections here seems to be forcing inductions because of legal liability rather than abortion legislation, fetal personhood laws have been used in the past to force pregnant women into medical procedures they didn’t want. And the way that the most marginalized among us—like incarcerated women—are treated is a glimpse into the future that conservatives want for all American women.” And that last point is why I will keep sharing Valenti’s vital work in this space. 

3. On January 1, copyrighted works from 1927, including the final Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and the movie Jazz Singer, entered the public domain. Ellen Wexler at the Smithsonian Magazine explains the situation and shares some of the works that people can more easily share without worrying about getting permission or paying a fee to a copyright holder. Puck’s Eriq Gardner notes how “everyone is counting down to an even greater prize: “Steamboat Willie,” otherwise known as the earliest version of Mickey Mouse, which will enter the public domain on Jan. 1, 2024” to explain how complicated this law can be. After all, knowing that while in 2033 the first Superman comic may enter the public domain, but that his power of flight didn’t appear until later could be helpful as these conversations continue. Here’s a link to a gift article so you can read Gardner’s writing even if you are not presently a Puck subscriber. 

4. The New York Times’ Dennis Overbye explains that the James Webb Space Telescope (gift article) is doing even better than scientists hoped in an article looking back a year after its launch. The photographs are breathtaking, and the scientists are excited. Overbye writes, “One by one, astronomers marched to the podium and, speaking rapidly to obey the 12-minute limit, blitzed through a cosmos of discoveries. Galaxies that, even in their relative youth, had already spawned supermassive black holes. Atmospheric studies of some of the seven rocky exoplanets orbiting Trappist 1, a red dwarf star that might harbor habitable planets.” It is good to remember that our species is capable of extraordinary achievements. 

5. Molly Knight is one of my favorite writers, and she is currently running a 20 percent off sale for subscriptions to her The Long Game Substack. I followed her for her baseball coverage, but she has also created a wonderful community despite dealing with many negative things over the past year. One of my favorite experiences in 2022 was participating in a group Knight facilitated that read and discussed Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. She is about to launch another course on January 9. As Knight explains, “Again, if you want to join us in this course, all you have to do is be a paid subscriber and then email me. If you can’t make it every week, don’t worry. Don’t use that as an excuse not to sign up! This is not a punitive course. It is gentle and encouraging and you never have to talk on the Zoom if you don’t want to. The goal is to come together to support each other on whatever we are working on. Maybe something someone says will unlock something for you? We have a handful of folks who enjoyed the course we did last summer and fall that they have signed up again.” I’m one of those folks, and I wouldn’t have started this newsletter without the conversations we had last fall. So now is a great time to subscribe to The Long Game and join in. 

Quick Pitches: 

• Digby notes that the outgoing January 6 select committee has asked the White House to help protect the identities of critical witnesses. Can anyone doubt the Trumpists would retaliate against them? (Digby, Hullabaloo)
• My Chicago Cubs have removed a ton of ground balls from their lineup this winter. More line drives and fly balls could lead to better results, and it’s a better strategy. (Brett Taylor, Bleacher Nation)
• Ice crystals in the air can create incredible images. (Phil Plait, Bad Astronomy)
• Daniel Story reviews every English Premier League team’s status after a weekend of unexpected results. (The Score from Daniel Story)

1. James Fallows shares the questions he would ask about Southwest Airlines’ meltdown last week, bringing his experience covering the airline since his time at the Texas Tribune in the 1970s. He covers the impact of deregulation and discusses whether Southwest’s point-to-point route model created more issues. But he points directly at corporate incompetence and greed for being the likely culprits: “Modern air travel is complex on a level rivaling the D-Day invasion. And modern first-world airlines have geared themselves up for that challenge. It appears that one of them did not—despite receiving billions of dollars in public aid during the pandemic, despite having spent billions on stock buybacks that benefited only their shareholders, despite very generous pay for its executive leadership…”

2. The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe recaps a successful and busy year in space exploration. The James Webb Space Telescope has provided breathtaking images, Artemis I successfully took Snoopy around the moon, and the Dart mission was a breakthrough for planetary defense. I hope we continue to learn more in 2023. 

3. The Nation’s Dave Zirin is one of the best writers about the impact of sports and society on each other, and he shares a recap of an especially troubling 2022. We saw the all-too-successful sportswashing results from the Winter Olympics in Beijing, the Men’s World Cup in Qatar, and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund’s financing of a new world golf tour. The Biden Administration’s efforts to free WNBA star Brittney Griner was great December news, but her ordeal exposed significant issues. As Zirin explains, “Far from uniting with one voice, most of the sports media ignored her plight, and many athletes and the media followed suit. The disrespect and erasure she endured seemed all too familiar to the marginalized communities that saw themselves in Griner. It also reflected how women’s sports are marginalized more generally.”

4. Scott Galloway offers some predictions for 2023 in his No Mercy, No Malice newsletter. You may have heard some of these on his Prof G podcast or on Pivot with Kara Swisher. He discusses the economy, technology trends, and hopes that we have reached the peak of idolizing tech billionaires. (I also hope for that last one.)

5. Jason Kottke shares how Our First Closeup Image of Mars Was a Paint-By-Numbers Pastel Drawing. He explains, “On July 15, 1965, NASA’s Mariner 4 probe flew within 6,118 miles of the surface of Mars, capturing images as it passed over the planet. The image data was transmitted back to scientists on Earth, but they didn’t have a good way to quickly render a photograph from it. They determined that the fastest way to see what Mariner 4 had seen was to print out the imaging data as a series of numbers, paste them into a grid, buy a set of pastels from a nearby art store, and do a paint-by-numbers job with the pastels on the data grid.”