Afternoon Tea 10.8.2020 - Lord of the Flies

Pence interrupts, Golden Dawn convicted, kidnapping plot foiled, and men want you to put a ring on it.

October 08, 2020

A fly qualified for a cabinet level position with VP Pence during the debates, a kidnapping plot against the Michigan governor was foiled, belligerent raccoons were reported on the White House lawn, and GOP strategists are terrified Trump could lose women by over 20 points. It’s Thursday, October 8th 2020, and this is the Tea.

A fly stayed on Vice President Pence’s head for more than two minutes (Washington Post) There will be more memes at the end of the Tea, but I wanted to make sure everyone had a copy of this gif. For you know, purposes.

Plans to kidnap Whitmer, overthrow government spoiled, officials say (Detroit News) If six tan dudes were arrested planning to kidnap a governor of a red state and overthrow their government, we’d have already started bombing the wrong country.

After Years Of Claiming It Doesn't Use Facial Recognition Software, The LAPD Admits It Has Used It 30,000 Times Since 2009 (TechDirt) 300 officers have access to a database that looks for matches among 9 million photos. I wonder if they use the algo that gets it wrong most of the time, or almost all of the time.

In Pictures: The day Golden Dawn was convicted (Al Jazeera) Golden Dawn, a neo-nazi party in Greece, was convicted and is now considered a “criminal organization” after the prosecution was able to tie the murder of a prominent anti-fascist rapper to local party leadership. There is a lot we can learn from how Greece handles its fascists.

CNN reporter fends off White House raccoon before live cross (The Guardian) Winning for my absolute favorite video of the week, a reporter for The Guardian had to shoo away a raccoon for the second time. Apparently they’ve been getting aggressive, in another instance of 2020 metaphors being just a bit too on the nose.

“Frickin' raccoons, man. God, again!" he said. "This is the second time! Jesus…It always comes around right around when I’m about to go on TV."

Why Did Hundreds of Thousands of Women Drop Out of the Workforce? (New York Times) I’m kind of shocked the Times has to ask.

Jeers of a clown: How The Simpsons made Sideshow Bob into one of TV’s favourite villains (The Independent) Included because of the mention that the famous rake gag was only animated to fill space.

This fan-favourite sequence, in which Bob unintentionally – and repeatedly – whacks himself in the face with a rake, was the result of the writers needing to fill time (“creative padding”, as Reiss called it), but became an unforgettable piece of surrealist comedy.

Grammer himself had only recorded one rake-in-the-face reaction sound, not expecting to hear it nine consecutive times in the finished product.

Marriage in the ‘New’ America: A Pandemic, Equality, and an Industry Ready for Change (Brides) Talking to 1400 people about marriage in time of crisis, I was surprised to see these findings related to men and their thoughts on marriage:

  • Straight men are more likely than straight women to say their single most important reason for having a wedding is that they 'dreamed about it' for much of their lives, with 32% of men deeming the big day a lifelong dream compared to 27% of women.

  • 40% of grooms assert the importance of making the wedding celebration 'grammable', as compared to just 27% of brides.

  • 44% of men strongly believe that being married will make them more of an adult, compared to just 30% of women.

Young Whales Looking to Dine Flock to Waters Off NYC (NBC News) As the whales don’t much mind outdoor dining, as our waters have changed, they’ve found a home feeding in the waters around NYC.

4 Funny Feelings About 2020 (Politico) I know hope is forbidden these days, but I wanted to share a small seed of light in the darkness from a seasoned reporter on the campaign trail, quoted from point 4 in this article:

Last week, I heard from one of the smartest Republicans alive, a longtime party operator who lives in a state Trump carried by double digits. He told me the polling he was seeing there was something out of a nightmare; these were numbers he never expected to see in his lifetime. The only thing more dizzying than that? I had another conversation, with another dependable red-state Republican, the very next day, and heard the very same thing. Both of these men were sounding the alarm, alerting me that Trump could actually lose their states, and would at the very least drag down a number of down-ballot Republicans, because women have turned on the GOP at a historic clip. Trump lost women by 13 points to Clinton, according to exit polls, and Republicans have long worried that the figure could climb into the high teens. There is now genuine worry that the margin could explode north of 20 points—the biggest gender gap in modern election history.

Song of the Tea: If you’re reading this, you’re a survivor.

You made it this far, don’t give up.

Yours,T

P.S. Here are the fly memes:

Bonus!