Afternoon Tea 10.7.21 - Pandemic Orphans

More unions vote to authorize strikes, Biden revitalizes the Public Loan Forgiveness program, indigenous tribes need to be left alone in Brazil, over 120,000 kids have lost a caregiver from COVID, and Gen X hit the jackpot. It’s Thursday, October 7th 2021, and this is your Tea. Today's vibe is an absolute electro opera banger from the Bloody Beetroots. Fallen Love indeed.

IATSE Votes to Authorize Nationwide Strike (Variety) & Why Kellogg’s Workers Are On Strike (HuffPost) If a few more unions join these individual strikes, we could be close to critical mass for an actual general strike. America has never experienced one of those, so ping some French people for advice if it does go down.

US Dept. of Education overhauls Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (CNN Politics) While we could not be more skeptical of this announcement, if Biden actually delivers on this, it will free tens of thousands from student loan debt.

More than 120,000 US kids had caregivers die during pandemic (AP) Grandparents, aunts, uncles, extended family caregivers, it’s a lot worse than just the death of parents. Our leadership’s inability to act has created a generation of Pandemic Orphans.

Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions? (Businessweek) Tether and Stablecoin valuations, not Robinhood or DogeCoin, might be the structural weakness to BTC and Crypto.

European Parliament backs ban on remote biometric surveillance (TechCrunch) & The pandemic is testing the limits of face recognition (MIT Technology Review) The benefits of facial recognition are minimal, especially when you are using it at the societal, not personal phone level. Before we add a layer to the digital panopticon, let’s make sure the wider society and not just firms like Palantir and Hikvision are benefiting from it.

Attorney for man cleared of returning fire in self-defense at Minneapolis during riots releases evidence, body camera footage (Star Tribune) Last year, Minneapolis cops drove an unmarked van around, shooting at protesters without identifying themselves. Someone shot back, thinking it was the Proud Boys or white nationalists, so they were attacked, bloodied, and arrested by the cops. The trial…went about as well as you are imagining.

Gen X’s Wealth Has Gone Up 50% During the Pandemic (Bloomberg Wealth) After reading this, I never want to hear Gen X complain that they’re not getting enough attention. They’re quietly pocketing significant wealth, so they can keep it zipped.

The CIA’s Afghan Proxies, Accused of War Crimes, Will Get A Fresh Start In the US (The Intercept) The CIA’s Zero Units are absolutely terrifying, while their preferential treatment and rule-bending during the evacuation is absolutely expected.

Brazil court upholds ban on missionaries trying to contact isolated Indigenous (Mongabay) If you legitimately think that missionaries not only have a right to badger people into thinking that their faith is cool, but that they can broach long-standing rules to respect the wishes of Indigenous tribes, maybe sit down and have yourself a deep think, colonizer.

Instagram has largely replaced TikTok in India, and erased working-class creators (RestOfWorld) Rounding out with a story that we can’t even really get our heads around, but, our readers must be used to that experience by now.

Poem of the Tea: Take time, breathe, and enjoy this loveliness from Yusef Komunyakaa.

What does it matter, you weren’t looking anyway.

Yours,