Afternoon Tea 3.18.2021 - Explosive Good Looking Salmon

The bill always comes due. Even if you think own the restaurant.

March 18, 2021

A coordinated attack against transgender rights is happening across 26 states, energy companies knew about the link between air pollution respiratory illness decades before admitting it, the world needs to get its groove back, and the cop who said the murderer had a very bad day posted a racist shirt blaming China for COVID. It’s Thursday, March 18th 2021, and this is the Tea.

The Cop Who Said The Spa Shooter Had A "Bad Day" Previously Posted A Racist Shirt Blaming China For The Pandemic (BuzzFeed.News) This is exactly why I don’t report police statements after white supremacist violence. Which is also why he was captured alive. As I’d said before, you don’t see piranhas eating each other.

State anti-transgender bills represent coordinated attack, advocates say (NBC News) Since this article was written, the number of states seeing anti-trans measures being introduced jumped from 20 to 25. 78 different pushes by state level GOP jack wagons.

Oil firms knew decades ago fossil fuels posed grave health risks, files reveal (The Guardian) I think my shocked face was lost in some air pollution back in the 70s.

Trump’s taxes in hand, Manhattan DA’s probe heats up (Associated Press) Subpoenas going out! Michael Cohen has met the Cy Vance Jr. so many times I hope he’s brought him home for dinner to meet the parents.

The Imperious Rise and Accelerating Fall of Andrew Cuomo (NY Times) Even the Times is starting to understand that if you kick everyone on the way up, no one tries to break your fall on the way down.

As Online Shopping Surged, Amazon Planned Its New York Takeover (NY Times) & Who Helps Pay Amazon’s Low-Wage Workers? You Do (Bloomberg) Huh, seems we didn’t need to give them 3 billion in subsidies to win the little city vs. city Bum Fight Tournament Bezos set up a few years back. Also, taxpayers pay to support Walmart & Amazon not paying a living wage to millions of workers. From that commie pinko rag Bloomberg.

Taiwan official urges people to stop changing their name to ‘salmon’ (The Guardian) I love this story so much, they’re calling it “salmon chaos.”

Under the two-day promotion, which ended on Thursday, any customer whose ID card contained “gui yu” – the Chinese characters for salmon – would be entitled to an all-you-can-eat sushi meal along with five friends….Local media ran interviews with people who had taken advantage of the promotion. “I just changed my name this morning to add the characters ‘Bao Cheng Gui Yu’ and we already ate more than Tw$7,000 (£176),” a college student surnamed Ma told the TVBS news channel in southern Kaohsiung city.

Roughly translated, Ma’s new moniker means: “Explosive Good Looking Salmon.”

Not tonight, darling: how the world lost its libido - and how it can get it back (The Guardian) It’s not just a drought of actual babies, but baby making as well.

How America Segregates Its Drug Use (New Republic) Zachary Siegel creates the best iteration of the argument I’ve seen made over the years in harm reduction circles. Given how adderall, cocaine, crack, and meth are used for basically the same purpose (psychomotor stimulation & recreation), the wild variance in penalty really needs to stop. This quote really synthesizes it:

Part of the answer is that pharmaceuticals aren’t seen as drugs—they’re medicine. “Medicine” is legal, prescribed by a doctor, and taken for legitimate reasons, like treating pain and relieving suffering. “Drugs” are perceived to be dangerous compounds with no therapeutic value, sold to “dope fiends” on the street chasing a high. The suburban homemaker taking Valium to stay on top of things does not generate the same ire, or punitive impulse, as a Black woman like Billie Holiday using heroin. Federal authorities loathed Holiday’s song about lynching, “Strange Fruit,” and her heroin use became a pretext for constant harassment by drug warriors.

Combat Drones Made in China Are Coming to A Conflict Near You (Businessweek) Cheaper, competently fabricated combat-capable drones are have been purchased by countries like Nigeria, UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Myanmar. The battle space is changing faster than we are realizing.

Finally, someone’s built a set of working vinyl DJ decks out of Lego (MusicRadar) Ok, respect. Not only did the channel Look Mum No Computer use a bunch of Technic and Mindstorms programmable LEGOs but they partnered with LEGO officially to make the damn thing. Proper decks.

 Song of the Tea: Suit of Bullets is fast becoming a favorite new label coming out of pandemic. Dubsound’s electro-shimmering frame of the gorgeous vocals from Faithroze might help get you to the end of this gray, rainy day.

“Stop and rewindTake me back to the timeYou were laying there, pouring out the wordsI get chills in my feetWhen you write, when you sing, I am everything”

Yours,