Afternoon Tea 1.19.21 - Rabble-Rousers

Reality continues to set in for the insurrectionists and the Big Tech companies that enabled them, the late MF Doom is on Biden's playlist but wasn't let back into the country under Obama, tools come online to scrub the Parler cache, and that virus thing is still happening, just in case you'd forgotten. It’s Tuesday, January 19th 2021, and this is the Tea.

What Parler Saw During the Attack on the Capitol (ProPublica) This is, in my mind, superior to the WaPo coverage of the footage. From a professional perspective, I’m gobsmacked an interface this responsive and complex could be put together since the 6th. I can’t even get approvals to change text on a page inside of a month.

‘I Am Such an Instigator’: Oath Keeper Leader Charged With Conspiracy in Capitol Riots (Yahoo! News) Exceptional work by online activists and journalists are why headlines like this are possible. It’s been about 2 weeks and prosecutors have stitched together this much already. At a certain point, a 3 Percenter, Oath Keeper, Proud Boy, or some LARPing organizer might get tied to a real member of Congress or worse, our beloved Dark Carnival Pokémon.

The far right embraces violence because it has no real political program (Washington Post) & The Radicalization of Kevin Greeson (ProPublica) Now that the OrangeShirts are being prosecuted, we have to start accepting how this came to pass. Ordinary people are exhausted by this stuff, but it really does work over time, especially if you’re not savvy. This is equivalent to pretending everyone is immune to marketing, after a $5 billion marketing campaign by Coca Cola caused the Sacking of Pepsi.

Trump finishes with worst first term approval rating ever (CNNPolitics) & Analysis: TV news is realigning, with Fox’s ratings sagging and CNN’s soaring (CNNBusiness) This is just a bunch of crowing by CNN, but honestly, given the run of Fox News and the way they were absolutely just terrible winners about it, I’ll give it to them for five minutes. And if he loses his SAG pension, we can all throw our heads back and laugh.

The incalculable (Popula) & Los Angeles becomes first county to hit 1 million COVID-19 cases (NBC News) So much suffering. So utterly preventable, so utterly unnecessary.

Biden Inauguration Soundtrack includes MF DOOM, an Immigrant Rapper Deported Under Obama (MintPressNews) Obama’s ICE prevented MF DOOM from returning to the USA and he was forced to spend the last 10 years in London. The reason you’ve not been able to see MF DOOM in concert is the administration our president-elect road the coattails of all the way to the White House.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Facebook in 2018: Parkland school shooting was a false flag planned event (Media Matters) There it is folks. That QAnon lady that had the Censorship mask on the House floor? Can’t wait to see how her office answers calls from the parents who have been used as issue piñatas by gun nuts and the NRA (Happy Bankruptcy!) for 8 years now.

Despite Parler backlash, Facebook played huge role in fueling Capitol riot, watchdogs say (Slate) & The Growing Problem of Online Radicalization (Der Spiegel) & How to Hold Social Media Accountable for Undermining Democracy (Harvard Business Review) This is just a royal sampler of where the progressive left, where the German media, and the non-stupid right have started to think on how to handle Big Tech. The election turned out to be a non-issue, while the Sacking of the Capitol might be the thing that stops them, not the Biden presidency.

Telegram Says It Shut Down “Hundreds of Public Calls To Violence” From US Channels Last Week (Gizmodo) & The Moderation Wars Come to Spotify, Substack and Clubhouse (Medium) - Newsflash, if you have a platform people can organize or argue on, moderation is coming for you. Strap in and get used to Nazi hunting.

Mets fire GM Jared Porter for sending explicit, unsolicited images to female reporter (CBS Sports) 62 unanswered text messages, including dong. Simply Amazin’ when you think about it. It’s 2021 fellas, if she wants to see a picture of your junk, she will ask for it. I cannot stress how much you might be wrong about this if you disagree with me.

Song of the Tea: As 2021 is officially future-sounding year, we’re all about future-sounding genres. And what could be more future-sounding than Future Slap, from a group called PØP CULTUR.

2021 has seen so many twists & turns already, maybe Tiësto will get back to spinning Trance music for ASOT1000. It’s the future, the unattainable is unknown (at zombocom).

Yours,T