Afternoon Tea 1.8.25: Fire Hurricanes

We’re back for 2025! I know some of y’all were bracing for another 2 year absence, but the future is too stupid to disappear now. Interestingly, 4 years ago on J6, Factual Dispatch saw its highest engagement numbers ever, a top that hasn’t been reached since. So when CNN, WaPo, and the rest of legacy media get accused of helping Trump get re-elected to juice their numbers, I can confirm that not only happens, but trickles all the way down to your friendly neighborhood internet journalist. So, let’s see if we can make up for lost time by getting the FD/AT word out to your friends & enemies!

LA engulfed by apocalyptic wildfires fueled by hurricane-force winds amid dire evacuations (FOX 11) Fire Hurricane is up there with Fire Tornado, a phrase I never want to hear outside of science fiction & interplanetary exploration. The greater LA metro area is coping with 4 different fire systems right now, and yes, “Fire System” shouldn’t be a phrase either. But, here we are. Don’t go on Twitter/X unless you want to see people burned out of their homes being blamed for it because they live in California.

US Homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people (AP) The numbers in this report are worrying, the commentary is myopic, and there’s essentially no interrogation of how TX managed to reduce its homeless numbers when its gov’t is allergic to any form of social assistance. But! Veteran Homelessness continues to drop! For a tiny mote of light in the malevolent darkness, peep this chart:

The Government Is Shutting Down Because Elon Musk Has Factories in China (American Prospect) This is why I restarted FD, and why I kept banging on about Musk not fucking up TwitX by accident. He destroyed Twitter to signal to every gov’t everywhere, that he was a friend to autocrats. But behind that plan was this one, to ensure his Tesla manufacturing chain was uninterrupted, no matter who is president. And it happened even more quickly than I thought possible.

Wall Street declares war on the Associated Press (Matt Pearce) The Associated Press is the last bastion of traditional, fact-first, sober-eyed global news coverage. I can complain about its literary bias or The AP is being attacked

It’s Not Looking Great (Hamilton Nolan) We’re watching journalism be dismantled in slow motion, right in front of us. When the leadership of the LA Times, Washington Post, and the NYT kowtow to the incoming administration this hard, it’s not to keep their employees safe, it’s to keep their revenue streams intact. Such cowardice.

Zuckerberg officially gives up (Garbage Day) & FB Censors Stories About Facebook Censorship (404 Media) To put a finer point on it, Zuck deleted his fact checking department, without even telling them first. While dressed like the World’s Dorkiest MMA Cosplayer & wearing a watch worth literally $1,000,000, he mansplained about trans rights, immigration sentiment, and “free speech,” all while his company censored 404 Media’s stories on censorship. A demonstratively terrible move, that cause suffering to the trans and migrant communities. If you don’t believe me, just ask the Rohingya.

The Minimum Wage Claims You Keep Hearing Are Totally Fake. We Can Prove It. (Drop Site) Drop Site took the time to debunk all the stupid claims being made about Cali’s minimum wage law-pocalypse. Of course nothing bad happened, because it’s not real, it’s just astroturfed concern by think tanks paid to lie. Their source, Invictus, is a tremendous resource who has actually corrected WaPo on more than one occasion. Truth still matters to some it seems.

The New York Times is a right-wing newsletter, with recipes (Finding Gravity) Finally, kill your NYT subscription. Seriously. Wordle isn’t that fun, the commentary is “Hitler in Summer” tier fascist apologia, and the magazine has lost most of its luster. If you still subscribe because you’ve tethered “being truly informed” with “reading the NYT Sunday edition,” you’re trapped in a reality that hasn’t been valid since Margaret Thatcher was in power.

Where’s all the Money in Personal Transformation? (The Leading Edge) I freaking LOVE analysis like this. An excellent extension of “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” so, make sure to ask all your guru or spirituality-as-a-service friends “If you’re so happy, why do your friends hate you?”

Why probability probably doesn’t exist (but it is useful to act like it does) (Nature) It’s not real, just like probability “arrays” in quantum mechanics aren’t real. It’s just a way to represent potentiality. Which, also isn’t real. But just in case your friend who thinks PokerStars/DraftKings is a personality won’t shut up about parlay odds, this is a wonderful palette cleanser.

julianmajin

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Quote of the week

"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple."
~Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

Poem of the week

By esteemed poet @raymusic0711 on TikTok. Face your Abyss.

Vibe of the week

Apashe’s remix album is Exceptional. One of those remixes that you don’t know whether to speed or wobble to. Don’t do ketamine while driving folks!

Second star to the right, straight on until morning,
tnh