Afternoon Tea 10.12.2020 - Cabrini Day

Lebron & the NBA finish a zero case season, handmaid confirmation hearings, and DNA extracted from resin.

October 12, 2020

Judge Totally-Not-Handmaid’s confirmation hearings begin, Columbus Day creation as a response to Italians being lynched in New Orleans, Lebron & the Lakers end a covid-caseless season, and extracting DNA from organisms in resin. It’s Monday, October 12th 2020, and this is the Tea.

Lakers begin each of the past three decades with a Championship win (FadeAwayWorld) Nico called it back in January, pre-COVID. With Lebron solidifying his case for GOAT (Greatest of All Time) status, we can now turn to how the NBA actually did. Which is build a bubble and manage to have an entire season without a single positive case. If you’re startled you didn’t hear about this, you’ll even be more surprised the NBA built a whole school to ensure families would be safe inside the bubble.

Amy Coney Barrett Is As Cynical As Trump (Slate) Great read on just how calculated and cynical this maneuver actually is. Remember Mike Lee, Covid-19 carrier? He’s at the hearings today, without a mask. The media is chewing through hours talking about Biden theoretically packing the court when the GOP has no policy platform at all? When they claim morality in jurisprudence this week, this is the same party that claims fiscal responsibility against Dems, who put up numbers like this:

FBI sent a team to 'exploit' Portland protesters' phones (Engadget) That thing your Occupy friends told you was happening, happened again during the Battle of Portland.

The Joke’s on Us: In the 2010s, Hitler memes and “ironic” racism filled the internet. What if we had taken it seriously? (The Atlantic) I’m not saying I told you so, I’m working on a set of BIPOC & non-binary women who did tell you so in 2014. You know, back when The Atlantic was saying it was about ethics in games journalism.

Fake eggs fitted with GPS track sea turtle traffickers in Central America (ZME Science) Transmitters disguised as eggs uncovered a 137 mile long sea turtle smuggling network. Innovative tech used to stop somethin terrible.

She’s Got Game (RestOfWorld) Heartwarming story about Saudi girl gamers owning the competition. Just smile thinking of gamers raging because they got sniped by a girl in a headscarf.

DNA from resin-embedded organisms: Past, present and future (PLOSOne) Does what it says on the tin. We can now go back to old resin to retest and try to re-extract.

New era of French MMA opens with a kick in the balls (BloodyElbow) Talk about setting a tone for the sport.

Priest recorded having group sex on altar of Pearl River church, police say; 3 arrested (NOLA) NOLA’s hottest club is “Church.” It has everything, Corsets, bondage gear, a visiting dominatrix, and charges stemming from “obscene acts [that] occurred on the altar, which is clearly visible from the street.” 

The Lynching That Gave Us Columbus Day (Medium) While Fuck Columbus Forever is the only correct take, some context to the day you might not have known: In 1891, 11 day laboring immigrant Italians were lynched in New Orleans. They were acquitted of murdering a NOLA police chief, but were still strung up. The New York Times published an editorial stating:

“Nor can there be any doubt that the mob’s victims were desperate ruffians and murderers. These sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins, who have transported to this country the lawless passions, the cut-throat practices, and the oath-bound societies of their native country, are to us a pest without mitigation. Our own rattlesnakes are as good citizens as they. Our own murderers are men of feeling and nobility compared to them. These men of the Mafia killed Chief Hennessy. . . . Lynch law was the only course open to the people of New Orleans to stay the issue of a new license to continue its bloody practices.”

Italy demanded the arrest of the mob leaders & due compensation to the families. When then President Harrison said no, the Italian government pulled its Ambassador. Eventually he relented, making a cash payment to each family, ($25k in 1890s cash), and use the bully pulpit to remind everyone to lay it off on Italians, as they were Americans. They decided on a Proclamation to honor an Italian, and by that point, 1892, it was the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ first beer run to the Bahamas.

Italians thanked the USA for these gestures by sending us a statue of Columbus. Which still sits at the intersection of Broadway & 59th in NYC. Instead of Columbus Day, I like the author’s invocation of Colorado’s solution: Cabrini Day.

Frances Xavier Cabrini, known as Mother Cabrini, was an Italian nun sent to the United States to help Italians struggling in their adopted land. Indeed, hatred for Italians was such that Pope Leo XIII found it necessary to send them a woman who would become a saint. Suffice it to say that Mother Cabrini is credited with performing miracles in her work to mitigate bigotry against Italians and all immigrants in this country. Pope Pius XII canonized her on July 7, 1946.

Song of the Tea: A great conversation starter on Thanksgiving, this track infuses traditional beats from First Nation producers, modern bass, and Wednesday Addams. What’s not to like?

Stay dry.Stay positive.Stay Batman.

Yours,T

P.S. Did you miss the dinosaur going Super Saiyan in the Dave Chappelle gif? I bet you did. Go look.