Today’s Lineup

Here are some of the topics that have caught my attention as I’ve been browsing the internet: we should pay attention when a former Vice President warns us about the dangers posed by a previous President, sports administrators fail, Sidney Holmes exonerated after serving 34 years in prison, anti-abortion bans targeting supportive friends, California to renovate San Quentin based on a Scandinavian model of rehabilitation, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate won’t answer whether he supports democracy, librarians struggling as book bans expand, I want to visit the Misalignment Museum in San Francisco, the history of Ted Lasso the character, Frenchies take over, and the New York Yankees won’t pay for in-flight wireless internet.

Leading Off

Yes, I am a bit surprised to type that headline for this newsletter. But, as The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols explains, we should pay attention when Mike Pence is trying to warn us to take seriously his warnings about the danger former President Donald Trump represents.

Pence has gotten more attention for a disgusting and homophobic joke aimed at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during the Gridiron Dinner than what he had to say about Trump’s responsibility for the January 6 insurrection against the government of the United States. As Nichols explains:

“Make no mistake, the joke was stupid and disrespectful, but perhaps we might zero in on the more important point: Pence told us something horrifying this weekend about the condition of our democracy. The national underreaction to his comments, however, is a warning that we have all become too complacent about the danger my former party now represents.”

This point is critical to understand. I cannot fathom why Democrats and others who wish to defend our democracy are unwilling to highlight what Pence said about Trump. A former Vice President of the United States said in a public venue that, “I had no right to overturn the election, and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

I wish I could share Pence’s optimism. How will history hold Trump accountable if we aren’t willing to talk about what the former president did—and continues to do—to harm our democracy?

Nichols explains how numb so many in our country have become about this extensional crisis.

“To put into perspective how numb we’ve become, let’s do a thought experiment. Imagine, for example, if Hubert Humphrey, after the riots that broke out in 1968 at the Democratic National Convention, said later, “Lyndon Johnson encouraged those anti-war protesters and put me and hundreds of other people in danger. History will hold President Johnson accountable.” Those two sentences would have shaken the foundations of American democracy and changed history.

But not today. Instead, we’ve already moved on to whether Pence should apologize for a clumsy and offensive joke. (He should.) This, however, is the danger of complacency. What would have been a gigantic, even existential political crisis in a more virtuous and civic-minded nation is now one of many stories about Donald Trump that rush past our eyes and ears.”

I don’t plan to stop talking about how the foundations of American democracy have been shaken. We have to do what we can to influence what history will say about the aftermath.

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Sports Adults Behaving Badly

I encourage you to read this story by Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke to see another example of the harm created when sports administrators insist they need to follow the letter of their rules in extraordinary situations.

There is no excuse for what the sports adults did after Cerritos College Coach Russ May put Kade West into the game for the last 1:39 of a blowout. This story should have been pure inspiration about the power of athletics.

Instead, May and West’s teammates are the only people who deserve our admiration. As Plaschke writes:

“West shot out of his seat. He raced into the action. He sprinted up and down for those final moments while working up the sweat of a lifetime. He took one shot, and missed it, but by the time Cerritos had finished off an 81-60 victory, he was being cheered by the tearful Porterville fans, hugged by everyone in sight, and celebrated for representing all that is right about this increasingly cold world of sports.

“I know the rules, but the human part of me took over,” said May. “It was an incredible moment.”

Followed, sadly, by a series of even more incredible moments.

May was suspended for a game. Cerritos was ordered to forfeit the victory. And West was temporarily stripped of his uniform.

The extra loss cost the Falcons a first-round bye in the postseason tournament, where they distractedly lost that opening game to lower-seeded Copper Mountain in double overtime, their sterling season collapsing under the weight of the kindest of gestures.

The CCCAA had dropped the hammer, Cerritos College had administered the blow, and what was once so beautiful became broken.”

California Community College Athletic Association Commissioner Jennifer Cardone, Cerritos College Athletic Director Rory Natividad, and every member of the CCCAA Board of Directors should have already resigned after the exposure of their decision to defend a rule over what was best for a student-athlete. The next best time for them to resign is today. Right now.

And then, they should go to see West and humbly apologize for causing him distress due to their failures in this situation.

Sidney Holmes Exonerated

In April 1989, Sidney Holmes was convicted of being a getaway driver for two men who committed armed robberies. While the two people who committed the robberies remain unidentified, a judge sentenced Holmes to 400 years in prison.

Holmes was exonerated and set free last week after serving over 34 years in prison. CBS News’ Aliza Chasan writes:

“During CRU’s [State Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit] review of Holmes’ case, it determined eyewitness identification of Holmes during the initial investigation was likely incorrect and that there was no evidence connecting Holmes to the robbery outside of the flawed identification.

An investigation launched by the brother of one of the victims also found that Holmes’ car was likely misidentified at the time and that key differences between his Oldsmobile and the one used by the robbers were overlooked, Pryor said.”

I have questions about the original trial and that sentence (400 years for being a getaway car driver, seriously?). But for today, I am glad Holmes has been set free and has a chance to reclaim some of the life taken away from him.

Anti-Abortion Laws Targeting Friendship

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern explain the ramifications of a Texas case where a man is suing three friends of his ex-wife for communicating with her as she decided whether to have a self-administered medicinal abortion. Lithwick and Stern write:

“Imagine being so afraid of the father of your two daughters that—having told him you’re divorcing him, and then subsequently suspecting you are pregnant—you feel you have to take the pregnancy test at work. As you later confess to two friends, via text: “I trashed it in a big can at work like outside in a bag. I didn’t take that home.” Imagine that the man who’d gotten you pregnant was such a bully, one of your friends would text back: “I just worry about your emotional state and he’ll be able to snake his way into your head.”

Imagine deciding that you must terminate this pregnancy, and you must do so while the father of your daughters remains unaware. You tell your two friends, and they caution that “you need to remove yourself from him,” because if he finds out about the pregnancy, he will “try to act like he has some right to the decision.” The sentiment is articulated by one of your friends, but shared by you, so thank goodness that you have both of them to help you understand your legal situation and eventually help you access a medication abortion that safely terminates your pregnancy.

And now imagine that your now-ex-husband—having discovered all this—decides to align himself with some of the most powerful opponents of reproductive rights in the country in order to punish you.”

Abortion, Every Day’s Jessica Valenti has been warning us for months that this is one of the ways the forced-birth fanatics were going to try to keep people from helping their friends as they face these difficult decisions. That abusive men were going to weaponize these laws as another way to control and terrorize their partners. If text messages can lead to a $1 million penalty, how many people will not be willing to send a reply? How many people will not be willing to seek help and put their friends in such a situation?

Thank you for reading Things I Find Interesting by Craig Cheslog. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Quick Pitches

California

The California Legislative Women’s Caucus and the California Future of Abortion Council announced their 2023 bill package—including 17 bills—on reproductive justice and abortion rights. (California Legislative Women’s Caucus Press Release)

The California Department of Finance Bulletin for March 2023 reported that the state’s General Fund revenues were $1.4 billion below projections. For the 2022-23 fiscal year, revenues are now $4.7 billion (4.1 percent) below Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D) January budget projections. The state budget debate is getting more challenging. (Jason Sisney, #CABudget Info)

A major expansion of California’s higher education financial aid programs set to go into effect in 2024 is now in jeopardy because of the lower state revenue projections. (Michael Burke, EdSource)

As part of the state tour he took in place of the typical State of the State Address, Newsom visited San Quentin to announce that the prison will be transformed using Scandinavian methods into the largest center of rehabilitation, education, and training in the California prison system. “The plan for San Quentin is “not just about reform, but about innovation,” a chance to “hold ourselves to a higher level of ambition and look to completely reimagine what prison means.” (Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times)

My two favorite states—Maine and California—are locked in a legal battle over the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s decision to include lobster on its “red list” of seafood to avoid. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association is leading a defamation lawsuit against the Aquarium because of the negative impact the listing has on the lobster industry. (Patrick Whittle, Associated Press)

Politics

Axios fired Ben Montgomery, one of their local Florida reporters, after Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R) media team publicly targeted the journalist with public criticism. Such fear and capitulations by media institutions are one way authoritarians win. (Hunter Walker, Talking Points Memo)

The most important election of 2023 is taking place in Wisconsin for a seat on the state’s Supreme Court (see this Dan Moynihan piece I featured in Issue #37 of this newsletter for more details). The stakes came into even more focus when the conservative candidate, Daniel Kelly, refused to complete a survey about his support for democracy. (Matthew Chapman, Raw Story)

Speaking of democracy, the conservative Federalist Society is hosting discussions about whether they want to defend leaving lawmaking to legislatures through judicial restraint now that radical conservatives control the Supreme Court. “That approach made sense for conservatives when they still saw the federal judiciary as a liberal force dragging the country to the left. But now that conservatives have secured a solid majority on the Supreme Court — and voters in several red states have soundly rejected hard-line positions on abortion — a spirited debate is underway within the Federalist Society about the wisdom of deferring to democratic majorities as a matter of principle.” (Ian Ward, Politico)

Librarians are struggling with the attacks they face as authoritarian Republicans pass bills to ban books from school libraries and classrooms. “Nearly every tumultuous movement in American politics has coincided with a call to ban books. “This piece of it is nothing new to librarians,” Allison Grubbs, the director of the Broward County Libraries in Florida, told me. “What I think is new is some of the pathways that people are choosing to take.” Protests in and outside libraries and library board meetings have become more dramatic. Online, in Facebook groups such as “Informed Parents of California” and “Gays Against Grooming,” the language is more and more incendiary. And the librarians themselves are being personally attacked.” (Xochitl Gonzalez. The Atlantic)

We must not accept the framing that bills recently introduced to make child labor easier are required because of a labor shortage. There isn’t a labor shortage. It’s just another example of corporate greed seeking to keep worker wages artificially low. (Adam Johnson, The Column)

Science

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to have ramifications in science. In President Biden’s 2024 federal budget request, NASA included a request for funds to develop a new space tug to safely deorbit the International Space Station over the open ocean when its operational life ends. The plan had been to use Russian cargo vehicles, but it is clear an alternative strategy may be necessary. (Mike Wall, Space.com)

A new study indicates another risk we may face as global heating melts permafrost. “A team of climate scientists from France, Russia and Germany has found that ancient viruses dormant for tens of thousands of years in permafrost can infect modern amoeba when they are revived.” (Bob Yirka, Phys.org)

Technology

HP is facing criticism after firmware updates prevent users from using third-party ink cartridges. (Scharon Harding, Ars Technica)

I need to find time to get to San Francisco to visit the Misalignment Museum. “The concept of the museum is that we are in a post-apocalyptic world where artificial general intelligence has already destroyed most of humanity,” said Audrey Kim, the show’s curator. “But then the AI realizes that was bad and creates a type of memorial to the human, so our show’s tagline is ‘sorry for killing most of humanity,’” she said.” (Julie Jammot, Science Alert)

Culture

Here’s how Ted Lasso went from a character three friends (Brendan Hunt, Jason Sudeikis, and Joe Kelly) developed while living in Amsterdam to becoming the award-winning series on Apple TV+. (Joe Pompliano, Huddle Up)

The American Kennel Club announced that the French Bulldog is the most popular purebred dog, breaking a 31-year streak for Labrador retrievers at the top of that list. (Jennifer Peltz, Associated Press)

Despite its connection to the British, the origin of the “stiff upper lip” actually lies in the United States. (Isti Bhattacharya, JSTOR Daily)

Sports

The New York Yankees are estimated to be worth $6 billion, the highest value in Major League Baseball. But they make their players pay for in-flight internet as they travel. (Stephanie Apstein, Sports Illustrated)

Diamond Sports Group, the company that controls the regional sports networks for 42 teams in Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and National Basketball Association, filed for bankruptcy. This could be an early move in a transformation of the way professional sports teams are paid for the broadcasts of their games as streaming becomes more prominent. (Alden Gonzalez, ESPN)

The Closer

Yeah, the new baseball rules appear to be working as intended.

Landon Knack throwing an entire half inning vs. Pedro Báez throwing 1 pitch.

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) 10:08 PM ∙ Feb 27, 2023

Post-Game Comments

Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection: “Tell me what you remember, and I will tell you who you are. Tell me what you are allowed to remember, and I will tell you who rules you.”—Timothy Snyder, Belarus (2/5): Nation Next

Thank you for reading my newsletter. Let me know what you think about what you’ve read. You can email me at craigcheslog@substack.com.

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