Afternoon Tea 12.20.20 - Red Flags & Stop Cues

As the shadow grows to its longest, time grows short for hero & villain alike.

December 21, 2020

Tech workers moving to a city near you, a Russian vaccine scientist and his 14th story window are soon parted, Trump voters bet bigly, losing bigly-ier, and Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN might have overplayed their hands on voting machine lies. It’s Monday, December 21st 2020, and this is the Tea. (Editor’s Note: Between being forced to work on my day off & not having power this morning, I’m mildly shocked we got this one out the door.)

How Offshore Oddsmakers Made a Killing off Gullible Trump Supporters (Slate) Comprehensive look at the international bookmakers who fleeced Trumpalos over this election. If you know someone who has been referring to themselves as “Patriot Gamblers,” this story will be perfect for you. If this makes no sense, buckle up.

The Red Slime Lawsuit That Could Sink Right-Wing Media Fox, OAN, and Newsmax (NY Times) played fast and loose with the facts so much that they got taken to the mat by voting machine companies. Leading to a jarring & comical set of on-air corrections:

Ivanka Trump, Famed Public Health Expert, Screened CDC Guidance to Make Sure It Was Nice to Her Dad (Vanity Fair) If you’ve seen some of the “Javanka might not be welcome back in NYC, due to the Year of Death” coverage, you might have started to feel sorry for Ivanka. Don’t. Ever. Not for a moment. The princelings of the family are just as responsible for what has been wrought as Papa Orange Smurf himself.

Where Tech Workers Are Moving: New LinkedIn Data vs. the Narrative (Big Technology) The Times, Journal, and Bloomberg can’t shut up about Miami and Austin. This lazy take, of how the technorati is fleeing SF & NYC for those two other places is both years behind the curve and not reflective of data. LinkedIn points to Sacramento, Richmond, Minneapolis, and Cleveland instead.

Violence breaks out at Wistrom Corp’s iPhone manufacturing plant near Bengaluru (Times of India) Apple has been quietly moving its subcontracted fabrication & assembly from China to India over the last few years. This quite literally throws a wrench into the gears of their plans, and in this case, the wrenches were on fire.

Russian scientist working on COVID-19 vaccine plummets to death in St. Petersburg (NY Post) Are there any functioning windows in Russia? Defenestration really shouldn’t come up in every death that smells suspect. Just strangle them occasionally.

Framing a privacy right: Legislative findings for federal privacy legislation (Brookings) Looking at how the states handle privacy to build a data-driven, modern looking privacy framework to guide the creation of federal privacy policy. Wildly compelling and eye-wateringly boring at the same time, that’s how important it is.

The Journalist and the Pharma Bro (Elle) Recently, I was feeling bad about my relationship history and what I was willing to do to be with someone. After reading this calamity of a horror story, I feel quite a bit better about my choices.

Then she chucked it all.

Over the course of nine months, beginning in July 2018, Smythe quit her job, moved out of the apartment, and divorced her husband. What could cause the sensible Smythe to turn her life upside down? She fell in love with a defendant whose case she not only covered, but broke the news of his arrest.

Suicides among women in Japan and South Korea have soared during the COVID-19 pandemic (The Telegraph - Yahoo!) This is an unqualified bad, and is for so many reasons that it sucks to be a woman, even in countries with strong social safety nets.

Humane Trap-And-Removal Program Sedates Tenants So They Are Unconscious During Eviction (The Onion) This came out today. The Onion Remains Undefeated.

Song of the Tea: “Your heart is full of unwashed socks” is low-key an amazing burn. You didn't know you needed GrinchBass but, here it is, so turn this up and find some mistletoe. If you're looking for something more nice than naughty, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health has you covered. 

If the only thing accomplished in this life was becoming truly contented and happy, would it be enough?

Yours,T