Afternoon Tea 11.3.2020 - Counterpoint

general strikes, naval team sports, weapon upgrades, and a layer of nuance

December 03, 2020

UAE joins up against Turkey, Fox News has undermined public health messaging over 1000x since September 1st, and a quarter billion people in India participated in a general strike last week. It’s Thursday, December 3rd 2020, and this is the Tea.

250 million people participate in countrywide strike in India (People’s Dispatch) & “This Is a Revolution, Sir” (Jacobin) While we were arguing about travel & COVID-19, a quarter of a billion people are estimated to have engaged in a general strike across the Indian subcontinent last week. That’s not a typo. The pictures from some of these actions are stunning. The Jacobin article has a good, albeit leftist angle on the actions, but given how far to the right Modi has pushed the country, it’s hard to find correct takes that aren’t recoiling in horror with it.

UAE joins Greek, Egyptian naval exercise in Eastern Mediterranean (Al-Monitor) Remember that “Coalition of the Olive Willing” to oppose Turkish prospecting and naval expansion? UAE joined up to push back on Erdogan.

US clears weapon sales for Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Croatia, Canada, Brazil and South Korea (Defense News) Brazil gets torpedo conversion kits and helicopter upgrades, Lebanon gets High Mobility vehicles, Croatia gets machine guns, missiles and Bradley upgrades, Canada gets $275 million worth of C-17 transport aircraft work, and South Korea gets anti-missile defense systems for ships. Saudi Arabia gets 33 service members & contractors (?!), with the funds going to relocate American personnel:

Services included in the package are “pay and allowances for U.S. Military, U.S. Government, and Foreign National staff members; USMTM communications support costs; local contracting costs; construction and renovation costs of housing area; transportation costs; U.S. Mail services support costs; dependent education (grades K through 12); administrative costs; temporary duty costs for USMTM personnel; Value Added Taxes (VAT) assessed by Saudi Arabia; and future transition costs to move USMTM” to a proposed new housing location in Saudi Arabia, per DSCA.

Sarah Palin Cancels and Matt Gaetz Signs on to NY Young Republicans’ Pandemic Gala (The Daily Beast) The Masque of the Red Death comes to Maspeth. Given Gaetz tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, are they going to liquefy and consume him to get his power?

Trump aide banned from Justice after trying to get case info (Associated Press) It's stories like this that keep me from publishing the Tea any earlier in the day. It's like they knew time was short, so they wanted to fit in a Watergate.

Stirrup is accused of approaching staffers in the department demanding they give her information about investigations, including election fraud matters, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter….

Stirrup had also extended job offers to political allies for positions at some of the highest levels of the Justice Department without consulting any senior department officials or the White House counsel’s office and also attempted to interfere in the hiring process for career staffers, a violation of the government’s human resources policies, one of the people said.

We Can’t Restore the Soul of the Nation with Rahm Emanuel in Public Office (The Appeal) You know what, I’m gonna say it. If you ran a torture black site, you shouldn’t be part of an ostensibly progressive administration. At some point, there have to be consequences for doing diabolical shit.

‘Stay home,’ says US mayor at Mexico beach resort (BBC News) Round of applause for Steve Adler, mayor of Austin. Pro-tip: Don’t tell people to be vigilant from the beach.

NYC’s New Non-Police Mental Health Crisis Response Still Resembles Policing (Filter) This is a critical point that needs a lot more eyeballs on it. The person who is confining you or declaring you “emotionally disturbed” isn’t a cop or hasn’t shot you, but if you get tazed, if you’re restricted for mental health reasons, or if you’re declared a threat to yourself, you still suffer the consequences of incarceration.

On Zoom, men don’t like feeling watched and judged - but women are used to it (The Conversation) This is hilarious. Men don’t like being judged or monitored without their consent, so this year on Zoom has been terrible for them. For women?

Pennsylvania legalizes autonomous delivery robots, classifies them as pedestrians (Pittsburgh City Paper) Overriding any local legislation, the bots can go up to 25 mph and can weigh up to 550 lbs before being loaded with cargo. Is there a non-dystopian capitalist reason we’re carving out right-of-way for bots but not bikes?

Small Business of the Tea: Wonderbon, a lovely dessert shop off Bleeker forced to close due to COVID-19, is back for the season. If you were a fan of City Bakery, this project from Maury Rubin will be worth checking out. While they can only deliver to NYC, if you’re within this anarchist jurisdiction (are we still that? can someone check?), you can snag a delivery of hot chocolate in growler form. I’m serious. Original dark chocolate, plant-based milk chocolate, and a plant-based white chocolate with cinnamon & cardamom.

If Hot Chocolate is your thing & you’re stuck in here with the rest of us, give it a taste.

Song of the Tea: I didn’t really use Soundcloud this year, so the Top 2020 metrics for me quite off. But this motivational lo-fi can be powerful in times of crisis.

You made it. Three weeks until 2020’s power over you vanishes forever.

Yours,T