The Chris Moeller Archives

Surprises of the week

It's hot and humid here in Iowa, and my reaction time has slowed. Unfortunately, this has been a week of news-making events that nobody could have imagined.

1. DNC emails are hacked and they reveal that staffers, whose precise job is to be neutral during the party primaries, were mocking the Sanders campaign and actively conspiring to weaken it. Among the actions they took was paying young people to push back online against Sanders supporters, planting stories, and attempting to intimidate journalists.

2. A University of Iowa football player was stopped on the streets of Iowa City while playing the mobile game "Pokemon Go," and had four guns pointed at him by five police officers. And then I click on the story, and it turns out that the player is black.

3. The Saudi government may have had a hand in the 9/11 attacks.

4. Hillary Clinton picks a running mate that's been vetted by Wall Street. He's an establishment careerist and privatist that has championed TPP, NAFTA, "right to work," the coal industry, off-shore drilling, and he signed the repeal of the estate tax in Virginias as the state's governor.

5. It's revealed that Roger Ailes engaged in sexual behavior that calls to the mind Jabba the Hut.

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The preceding was sarcasm, but this was a very surprising story this week: A Major League Baseball pitcher, Chris Sale, one of the league's best, was scratched from a start after he cut up all of the "throwback" 1976-style uniforms that his team was going to wear for a game. He did it during batting practice so the team wound up taking the field with their regular uniforms, but without Sale.

posted by CM @ 3:59 PM