Afternoon Tea 10.19.21 - Army Trouncing

Dead Kids, P2P Meth, Colin & The Comedian.

October 19, 2021

School shootings have returned, kids are dying from COVID, a cop killed his ex & her new girlfriend, New Jersey booked $1billion in revenue from sports betting in a month, Zillow turns off the iBuyer spigot, a TikTok Twilight Throwback is gaining momentum, and the US Army’s defeat by China is their #1 blockbuster. It’s Tuesday, October 19th 2021, and this is your Tea. Today's vibe is a now-classic remix of the wistful, lovely Lana Del Rey single “Young & Beautiful.” Kaskade adds the big room, glitzy backbone to make a certified banger.

One dead, seven injured in second shooting at Louisiana university in a week (Reuters) & NYC Reports First COVID-19 Death In A Child Since Schools Started (Gothamist) So, do we not report mass shootings anymore, even when 2 happen in universities in the same state in a week? We’d not heard of the previous shooting at all, nor the previous kids dead from COVID in NYC. If we’re not even pretending to care about kids anymore, that’s a pretty sad state of affairs.

A Chinese propaganda film about the defeat of the US Army is set to become the country's highest-grossing film ever (Business Insider) The Battle at Lake Changjin isn’t exactly about to win prizes at Cannes, but keep one eye on how the Chinese film industry changes as national pride continues to swell.

New Jersey has its first $1 billion month in sports betting (AP) How long until Jersey Boys can smoke blunts and stare at their DraftKings account at a lounge that’s got Sopranos reruns playing on the bar TV and nugs for sale in the front?

No, Sex Traffickers Aren’t Using Abandoned Child Car Seats to Lure Victims (Rolling Stone) You know TikTok detectives are getting a bit out of control when Rolling Stone has to take time out of its week to correct the record.

Zillow Pauses Homebuying as Tech-Powered Flipping Hits Snag (Bloomberg) A number of prominent social media people called out Zillow on iBuying homes right out from under prospective buyers. And enough of them made enough noise that Zillow is Doing Something About It. For just long enough for the internet to move on, we reckon.

A New, Cheaper Form of Meth is Wreaking Havoc on America (The Atlantic) The migration of meth kitchens from the heartland to Mexico was one of the first topics our writers researched, years ago. We’re only now understanding the globe-shaking effects of a minor plot point in Breaking Bad.Without the limitations of traditional meth-manufacture (smell, explosions, waste chemicals), this novel form of meth was in 96% of the samples the DEA tested as far back as 2012. The flip from ephedrine-based to P2P-based meth, as the article unpacks, is the biggest non-COVID threat to public health we’ve seen in years.

Brownshirts vs. the Board of Education (The Sword & The Sandwich) Talia Levin is a fantastic writer who has been tricking nazis, fascists, and militant assholes into giving her access to forums, boards, and secret klan meeting notes. This substack of hers is going to focus on the generations of fascists that built the world we live in, her favorite swords and sandwiches.

The Only Man Who Could Have Stopped The Iraq War Is Dead (Forever Wars) If you’re the only being that can stop a catastrophe, and you don’t, are you as responsible as those who would do something terrible? The Comedian from Watchmen certainly thought so:

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Pregnant woman. Gunned her down. Bang. And y’know what?” The Comedian retorts. “You watched me. You coulda changed the gun into steam or the bullets into mercury… You coulda teleported either of us to goddamn Australia… but you didn’t lift a finger!”

Colin Powell couldn’t rearrange matter or teleport. But he was an absolute national hero in 2002, a symbol of military integrity during an era of military fetishization. Powell, like Doctor Manhattan, saw a disaster unfold before his eyes. Unlike Doctor Manhattan’s apathy, Powell chose, in the crucial moment, to portray the disaster as necessary, however unfortunate that necessity might be, to stop a dire threat to international security. It is as if Doctor Manhattan acted as a character witness for the Comedian after the murder. 

The TikTok-Fueled Twilight Renaissance Is Upon Us (Jezebel) Fandoms are wild. If you thought they went into the weeds on Tumblr, TikTok might as well be handing geeks of assorted varieties a warp core from the Starship Enterprise. As the piece signs off:

“There was a major taboo around being a Twilight fan, especially if you were talking to, like, men. You were kind of considered crazy immediately. But now I think it’s kind of niche and camp to be a Twilight fan in 2021,” she suggested. “So at least we have that going for us!”

Poem of the Tea: While not spoken word or fine writing, this video is pure poetry for fans of Batman or Ted Lasso.

Usually, you don’t know that you’re entering times that you’ll always remember. Occasionally, you’re given a small clue.

Yours,