Afternoon Tea 11.16.21 - Siege of Armadillos

Robinhood & Citadel were talking during the GME fiasco, Harvard averts a grad student strike, Alex Jones fucked up real bad, the Carolinas are besieged by armadillos, and everyone blaming labor for inflation is in the pocket of capital. It’s Tuesday, November 16th 2021, and this is your Tea. Today’s vibe features the collab between Aesop Rock & Blockhead. If those two names mean anything to you, enjoy!

Gamestop, Revisited (Popular Info) & For the last time, there’s been no big increase in labor costs (Kevin Drum) & What Comes After Record-Breaking Performance? A ‘Big, Fat Bonus’ (Institutional Investor) A giant pile of data to remind everyone that the “promotions, raises, and worker wages are causing inflation” is both complete crap, and a ploy to keep you from demanding what you’re worth. If it doesn’t deter the private equity & hedge fund bros, don’t let it stop you either.

Where Inflation Is Highest in the US (WSJ) & $1 trillion in checks and 5% inflation. Worth it! (Stay-At-Home Macro) Inflation exploded where prices were the most depressed. And, once again, the checks didn’t produce the inflation, companies deciding to maintain their margins while blaming workers, did.

Fifty percent of Facebook Messenger’s total voice traffic comes from Cambodia. Here’s why (RestOfWorld) One of those stats that blows your mind the more you think about it. Voice SEO isn’t much of a thing yet, but Cambodia might change that.

Harvard University Averts Strike as Tentative Deal Made With Students’ Union (Bloomberg) Whenever people say that unions don’t matter, I always check the amount of money big companies like Amazon or the New York Times, spend on anti-unionizing efforts. This instance is no different. Kudos to those students, Columbia should be next.

Alex Jones liable for defamation in Sandy Hook ‘hoax’ case (AP) When you don’t turn over documents to a judge, after they ask repeatedly, don’t whine when you get dunked by the same judge.

Gunshots rang out as St. Louis mayor was discussing gun violence prevention. She didn't flinch (CNN US) & Aurora murder victim moved to Colorado from Colombia recently for a safer life (9News) Just because the media remains obsessed with mass shooters doesn’t mean we’re getting any better at regular gun crime. The spree in Aurora involved more than half a dozen car jackings & two home invasions. And if anyone thinks St. Louis was gentrifying, this TikTok shows how the mayor responded in real time to gunshots during an interview.

‘It’s A Free Country’: Man Threatens TSA Agent’s Life, Throws Checkpoint Stanchion, Strips Naked & Masturbates, Charges State (CBS4 Minnesota) We’d comment on the story, but we’re just going to add the relevant evergreen .gif from South Park to summarize our thoughts.

‘It’s like hunting aliens’: inside the town besieged by armadillos (The Guardian) The Siege of Armadillo sounds like a war-focused sequel of the Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe.

Vizio’s profit on ads, subscriptions, and data is double the money it makes selling TVs (The Verge) & The metaverse isn’t here yet. Until it is, digital advertising finances the internet. (Mobile Dev Memo) & What if Performance Advertising is Just an Analytics Scam? (Spark Toro) Remember the joke people made about printers being cheaper than the ink? That joke now applies to the TVs in everyone’s living room, now that Vizio is straight up admitting your viewing habits are the product they sell. This is why all the chatter about the “metaverse” is still idealism discussed through a haze of bong smoke. Until someone can make money from me exploring some Snow Crash-inspired digital Amazon Boardwalk/Shopping Center, the internet will keep being financed by ads. But this doesn’t mean companies who buy ads are immune to being scammed, in fact, they might be getting ripped off more than any of us.

Poem of the Tea: Audre Lorde, like The Onion, does not miss.

A friend once referred to a meteor as a “fist of an angry God.” Attack your problems so hard, they wake up believing they were hit by a rock fist from said furious deity.

Yours,