Weekly Takes - Monday, July 22 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, July 22 Edition

1. The Blue Jays farm system is so bad that they were right to draft whoever they deemed to be the best available players on their board, regardless of position.

But it is shocking to me how, year after year, they pass on drafting power bats.

One of the many failures of the Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins era.

2. The world -- and especially the West -- has had a growing algorithm problem in the last two decades, but I truly think it should now be at the forefront of daily political debates.

I cannot wrap my head around how bad Twitter is. If I read just one tweet that is pro-Donald Trump, my "For You" tab becomes full of the most extreme pro-Trump accounts there are on the app. And vice-versa. It is beyond scary.

Facebook has had the problem for years, largely targetting older users who make up the majority of their users. YouTube and Instagram are no angels here, either. But it is next-level bad on Twitter and has been since Elon Musk took over.

Scary stuff. In a matter of one evening, everything that you are tailored to read can brainwash you and allow you to live in an online rabbit hole that is separate from reality. It is wild.

There are millions and millions of people reading radical, fake news in their social media bubble and they have no idea that it is happening to them.

A brilliant disinformation campaign by the likes of Vladimir Putin has played a role in this, too. He and others have distorted political discourse among adversarial countries by setting up bot accounts that go on to cause political upheaval and confusion.

And millions of everyday Americans and Canadians read and fall for it, either because they are too innocent to understand the harsh realities of the internet or because in their mind, it allows them to confirm their darkest thoughts.

I just don't know how it can be fixed. Politicians on both sides use it to their advantage, so their incentive to call for change is low. And what changes can even be made, with regulation (rightfully) not an option?

Scary times.

3. It was wild to me how soft the media was on Trump until his acceptance speech.

Everyone was right to take a step back and reflect on their rhetoric, but holding power to account cannot just be thrown out the window, more so in the case of Trump, whose policies -- almost across the board -- are bad for America and the World.

That fact remains true, even if someone whack job with easy access to a gun (which Trump supports) tried to take him out.

4. Speaking of Trump's acceptance speech, it was a nice reminder of how dumb he actually is.

It was the ultimate convention through the first three days. The entire party was in line, rallying around Trump.

And his rambling, narcissistic self got in the way to end the week.

Truly amazing.

5. From a pure “winning” perspective, the Dems are right to rid Biden of the nomination (they forced him out) and to rally around Kamala Harris.

She will pull in demographics that Joe Biden was not capable of, she will reenergize some of the base, and she will have the opportunity to name a VP who could potentially help her in a swing state.

It turns out the timing (taking Biden a month to finally drop out) did not matter, either. I was under the impression that the Republicans would have their talking points in order for when this day finally came.

They… did not.

An election that was probably 80-20 Trump is likely now 60-40 Trump.

6. The worst part of this is the American people do not get to vote for the Dems nominee.

On one side, you have the Republicans who have and are all rallied around Trump. But then you have the other side who handpicked their nominee.

But this was always going to be the case, even if Biden did not drop out. He ran an uncontested primary a year ago.