Afternoon Tea 10.11.21 - Diversified Views

Allen West gets COVID, NJ cops are freed from the bondage that is CompStat, taking unemployment benefits away didn’t work, scalpers suck, no one can solve the “penis problem,” and a Bosnian built a rotating house for his wife. It’s Monday, October 11th 2021, and this is your Santa Maria Tea. Your vibe is a gorgeous remix of the Reading Rainbow theme by test-on-TikTok maestro, Wuki.

Allen West, Texas GOP gubernatorial hopeful, has COVID-19 (AP) We joked that the loyalty tests demanded by the Mar-a-Lago the Hutt included getting COVID-19. The weird thing about Republican gov’t officials who get it and are vaccinated, is that they’re much more likely to survive the infection. Which then cycles back into the myth that it’s not a problem. The primaries are going to be weird.

Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn’t Exist. Almost Nothing Happened to the Adults in Charge. (ProPublica) & Thousands who paid fees to Rutherford County probation company receive settlement checks this week (News Channel 5 Nashville) Law enforcement departments should not have any job duties that are related to the budget or the state/local purse. Productivity demands drive arrests and brutality by police across the country. At its worst, those outcomes create cyberpunk dystopian systems as described by ProPublica. William Gibson once said “the future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed.” If your blood boiled like ours did reading what happened to those kids, we assume you agree.

NJ cops can’t be fired or promoted based on number of arrests under new law (Police1) This is a transformational step, that if truly enforced, would reinvent how the police interacted with their communities. This should be replicated in every state in the union, CompStat should be relegated to the waste bin of history.

Biden White House waives executive privilege for initial set of Trump-era documents sought by Jan 6. panel (Politico) & Anybody Fighting Joe Biden Now Is Helping Trump’s Next Coup (Intelligencer) Not prosecuting the person responsible for Abu Grab Ass prison led to her becoming the Director of the CIA under False God Emperor 45. We need to fight for our democracy using not just unity, but justice.

Hey Democrats: Starving people into jobs isn’t working (The Week - Opinion) Last week’s job numbers better wake up a bunch of centrists. Super Unemployment wasn’t keeping people out of full time jobs, it was keeping them off the welfare rolls. This unforced error is going to play really, really badly in the midterms.

Stop calling Joe Manchin ‘moderate’ - he’s just a greedy reactionary (The Guardian) Father-of-Mylan CEO (you know, the one who spiked insulin prices) is one of the main back-stops against a bunch of stuff his own party wants to pass. So, if we wouldn’t refer to a member of the GOP pulling this crap (looking at you Ted), let’s call a dumpster fire spade a spade.

Scalpers Can Burn in Hell (The Gamer) That no one can reliably purchase an item of great desire on the first day it’s available for sale, and that the standard of “go through hoops or don’t get it” is now expected behavior, is a very bad thing.

Chatroulette’s Founder Has Spent 12 Years Trying to Solve ‘The Penis Problem (Motherboard) Who knew that Chatroulette was still trying to solve the problem of Surprise Dong that has plagued every platform that has had the capability of sending pictures or video. Could you send a description of your Johnson in morse code?

Stevie Wonder wasn’t the weirdest part (Akilah Hughes) This is the most even-handed, rational, & sober piece about Dave Chappelle and the recent documentary & comedy special. We’re not going to be taking comments on Dave’s most recent special. (Editor’s Note: Seriously. TERFy bullshit and any use of the UK/GOP’s “most vulnerable minority” witch hunt playbook here will earn a lifetime ban, including if we eventually go paid and you have dollars. Your money won’t be good here.) 

Given how integral Black Trans Women were to queer organizing in the first place, this is why people dunk on corporate rainbow logos and platitudes in June. Sam Morril the comic nails it here: If you’re paid $20 million up front with no caveat by Netflix on viewership numbers, and you’re selling out arenas, spare us the “canceled” jive. He could have had a different local trans opener at every show, a conversation with the community, a memorial fund for his friend, so much. Instead, punching down at the 44 trans Americans were killed last year. Millionaires with megaphones don’t get canceled, murder victims do.

Bosnian builds rotating house so that his wife has diversified view (Reuters) The construction took six years, and we have to wonder if it would have been better to build another room instead of a cake turnstile for the place. But, happy wife, happy life right?

Poem of the Tea: We dislike linking to tiktok for media such as the vibe or the poem, so we went and found the Twitter reposting of the video. This is 2:20 of the most correct truth about the internet, low effort comedy, and a lack of curiosity that we’ve ever seen. Pulitzer-tier material.

Yours,