Afternoon Tea 4.26.2021 - iCOP

Turkey whined after Biden recognized the Armenian genocide, Iranian drone shenanigans on parade, Twitter is helping Modi pretend COVID isn’t raging quite as badly as it is over there, Venezuela accepts international food aid for the first time in years, Emily Ratajkowski with the gangster NFT move of the year, and the Post Office is spying on you too. It’s Monday, April 26th 2021, stomach flu + throat infection is a spectacular combination, and this is the Tea.

The Postal Service is running a 'covert operations program' that monitors Americans' social media posts (Yahoo! News) They literally named the surveillance program where mail workers spy on you the Internet Covert Operations Program, iCOP. I swear to God the simulation needs, not better writers, just ones that are less lazy. Can we shut this down please? We’ve got 35 digital panopticon agencies, you know who I definitely don’t trust to get “algorithms to prevent terror” and such right? The department (somehow still) run by the guy who swore to destroy it.

Turkey summons US ambassador over genocide announcement (Associated Press) Erdogan threw in so hard with Trump that there was an odd consensus of “it’s not like he’ll hate us any more if we recognize now, so…might as well?” I think we’re seeing basically the length of the tantrum, as Turkey knows that if they push any harder, they give ammunition to Cyprus/Greece/Italy/Jordan in the Mediterranean, or risk being forced to rely on Russia even more, which…they’re not super fond of. Here’s an insanely detailed comment by an international law lawyer explaining the genocide designation and what it does in the eyes of how foreign policy is “supposed” to go.

Persian Posturing: Iran’s Drone Fleet Seen From Space (Bellingcat) & At least three killed as Iranian fuel tanker attacked off Syria (Guardian) So, it looks like Iran had a drone parade, and then a tanker got hit off the coast of Syria by…better drones. Seems like maybe don’t flaunt it if you don’t got it?

Windows, doors smashed at 4 Bronx synagogues in 2 days: NYPD (WPIX) & A Night of Violence in Jerusalem (Jewish Currents) & Dozens Wounded in Far-right, anti-Arab Jerusalem Protest (Haaretz) & Why Doesn’t Biden’s Democracy Agenda Include Palestinians? (Peter Beinart) State Senator Jamal Bailey had a penchant for calling me Seinfeld when we had classes together at Bronx Science, and was one of the first to denounce the vandalism against synagogues in Riverdale. All of the writing about the hate happening in Jerusalem right now linked is from Jewish or Israeli writers and orgs with significant bonafides. Supremacy will get us all killed. The world is in a bad place right now, we need to stand together.

Twitter Is Blocking Tweets That Criticize How The Indian Government Has Handled The Pandemic (BuzzFeed.News) & How the Modi Government Overestimated India’s Capacity to Make COVID Vaccines (The Wire) Modi has so much to answer for. So much needless death, so much suffering. But the fact that it took us up until ::checks notes:: an hour ago to agree to send 10 million of AstraZeneca vaccines the USA has sitting around, never planned for release in within our borders, to the rest of the world, is something that I don’t think the rest of the planet is going to soon forget when all of this is over.

Venezuela’s Maduro begins allowing aid against hunger, virus (Associated Press) Surprising bit of good news from Venezuela, the UN World Food Program will be allowed to deliver meals for 1.5million children, and the UN’s COVAX program. This appears to be the first time in years that Venezuela has agreed to outside assistance and interaction with the wider UN community. Here is to hoping the food gets where it needs to, and there’s minor uplifting of the gut-wrenching poverty they’ve been in while we refuse to allow socialist nations the ability to exist.

How many layers of copyright infringement are in Emily Ratajkowski’s new NFT? (The Verge) This is a great story, with all props going to Ms. Ratajkowski on this. There’s a print of a photo of her, taken for SI, that Richard Prince, did not get permission to use, that he is generating revenue from. But now, there’s a NFT of it. Which Emily owns. She is transforming his work and reselling it without his permission. His work just happens to be…stuff he stole from her. To summarize, a NFT was created of:

So Prince-y boy is welcome to sue, but he would most likely get around the world dunked, as the argument that would make his suit successful, would then rebound and cause him to be in violation in the exact same way. Big ups to Emily Ratajkowski, this is a baller move and other people should steal it.

Megachurch Pastor: Satan Made Falwell Jr. Watch His Wife Bone The Pool Boy (Wonkette) Satan made me a very specific kind of horny, 2021 Edition

Curt Schilling Lost His Entire $115 Million Career Earnings on a Video Game So many delicious lessons here. First, lol Curt. Second, just because you know how to make money doesn’t mean you know how to make it in different industries. Thirdly, this is sadly not a victimless story, as an entire game studio and a pretty healthy guaranteed loan from the Rhode Island gov’t was also involved. But lastly, couldn’t have happened to a nicer bigot. 

Introducing Amazon Salon (About Amazon) Every day a new nightmare. Thankfully they are not as of yet, having robots cut hair.

Song of the Tea - I occasionally use the phrase “Work until your idols become your rivals.” This track by The Glitch Mob, went from a fever dream they used to start their demo mix, to a fully licensed collaboration with The White Stripes. It’s the best encapsulation of the phrase I’ve ever heard, I think.

Of course it couldn’t hold me back. And I’m just getting warmed up.

Yours,