Alienation, autonomy, and ideology
If you’re a long-time reader, you know I offered some friendly advice to each Democratic presidential campaign back in February. Let’s follow up on that. Now it’s time for some grading. Did the campaigns take my advice? Have they done what they need to do in the early stages?
The grades are in.
In theory, no one can beat the Astros this season. Way back at the beginning of the season, the pundits said the Astros would steamroll the AL West and then the entire American League. Don’t believe the pundits? Prefer numbers and metrics? Well, they said the same thing. Note that to get the preseason predictions from 538, you have to scroll down to the bottom and select it. Experts said basically the same thing at the end of the season.
OK, the Astros already steamrolled the AL West, and now they’re working on the entire AL. Plus, they don’t have to worry about the Dodgers in the World Series, making them perhaps strong favorites. Sure, the Yankees beat the Twins again. But these aren’t my cousin‘s Astros, either. With an excellent rotation, lineup, and defense, the Astros are the most talented team in the postseason.
Let’s think a bit more now about whether the Yankees can do this.
In DJ Shadow’s 2016 Classic Nobody Speak, El-P from the hip-hop duo Run the Jewels starts off the song as follows:
Picture this
I’m a bag of dicks
Put me to your lips
I am sick
I will punch a baby bear in his shit
Two 2019 coming-of-age films feature this charming tune. First, we have Booksmart, which I wrote about a bit earlier as one of the best films of the year so far. And second, we have Good Boys. Good Boys is…something different. This might say something about gender, film, and childhood in the US.
Hi all – I’ve got a couple of upcoming public speaking events on tenants union activism! First, a brief talk with a college class. That’s not a public event, exactly. Second, a brief chat during a breakout session this Saturday at the Quad Cities Socialism Summit, hosted by the Quad Cities DSA. It’s this weekend.
Public speaking isn’t exactly my favorite thing to do, but I’ve gotten comfortable enough with it over the years.
As I’m sure some of you are aware, I’ve written about tenants unions here before. And I’m a board member of the Iowa City Tenants Union. We held our first meeting back in June, and now we’re hard at work on various issues related to security deposit theft, maintenance, discrimination, direct action, utilities justice, and housing policy.
Postseason baseball‘s well underway, and the Yankees swept the Twins! Again! Let’s take a quick look at the times the Twins played the Yankees in the postseason.
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