Afternoon Tea 4.5.2021 - Fuzzy Math

Is Truthiness still a thing, or do we need a new term post-Velveeta Elvis?

April 05, 2021

HR1, the Koch Brothers, clearance rates vs. crime rates, Cuomo’s continued retreat, the incoherence of resistance to vaccine passports, Alex Jones gets dunked by the Supreme Court, and half of Republicans believe some bullshit about 1/6. It’s Monday, April 5th 2021, and this is the Tea.

Half of Republicans believe false accounts of deadly US Capitol riot: Reuters/Ipsos (Reuters) Fake news works. Misinformation works. 50% of people believed the bilge that was spewed daily for weeks, given no pushback by GOP and shoved into their faces. At some point we have to stop blaming exhausted people who believe lies, and start blaming the people who spray the populace down with this hose of lies hourly.

HR 1: The Good, The Bad, and The WTF (Elections Daily) A sober, non-partisan, no-bullshit evaluation of how HR 1 affects voting. From someone so deep in the trenches that if you’re going to argue, I’m going to need to know how many ballots you’ve personally counted and voters you’ve personally helped before letting you run your mouth.

The pandemic crime surge is a policing problem (The Week) If you don’t know the clearance rate of your PD’s homicide, theft/robbery, and sexual crimes unit, take your whining about a 4% jump in “teh crimez” and shove it. Ryan Cooper calls out police unions better than I ever could:

They don't care that much about crime, they are mad at being criticized and held accountable, no matter how slightly. They want to return to the pre-reform status quo where they had near-total impunity for violent misconduct or outright crimes, got endless opportunities to scam fake overtime from the state, and people were too afraid to sass them. A return to the old ways will accomplish nothing for crime control; if anything it will probably make things worse.

Legislature Seeks to End “Arbitrary Limit” on Medicaid Spending (New York Focus) & New accounts detail how New York health officials were told to prioritize coronavirus testing of people connected to Andrew Cuomo (Washington Post) Advocates are pushing to get rid of this Cuomo-mandated cap on Medicaid funding, and they just might get it. If Cuomo-adjacent scandal material keeps coming out, NYS is gonna get Medicare4All before the end of the legislative session.

Vaccine Passports and the Categorical Impermissibility of Inconveniencing Republicans (Model Citizen) After traveling for a family tragedy last week, hearing people react to my wearing a mask while traveling was quite bewildering. This by Will Wilkinson puts into words a miasma of thoughts, frustration, and rage I’ve not been able to crystallize since the Terri Schiavo fiasco:

It’s really dead simple. Republicans favor freedom of association and strong property rights when it allows them to discriminate against people they don’t like. They oppose freedom of association and strong property rights when it allows others to discriminate against them. There’s nothing more to it. It’s blatantly self-serving tribalism. That’s the GOP’s one foundational principle. That’s it.

TikTok’s algorithm is sending users down a far-right extremist rabbit hole (Mashable) This is starting to be a structural problem with platforms that hit scale. If tech can’t figure out to handle this as an industry, we’re just going to produce Goblin Warrens that spawn incels and alt right supremacists.

“Can I Smoke Weed On The Street?” What You Need To Know About Legal Marijuana In NY (Gothamist) Congratulations to Drugs for winning the War on Drugs.

Supreme Court Rejects Alex Jones’s Bid to Overturn Sanctions for Rant Threatening Sandy Hook Families’ Lawyer on His Show (Law & Crime) Good. Leave nothing of his callous, paranoiac, griftopian empire but ash and sorrow.

Song of the Tea: Because history rhymes, with the MLB leaving Atlanta, 30 years ago, this Gov. JackWagon in AZ canceled MLK Jr. Day. The NFL moved the Super Bowl and Public Enemy also had a few things to say.

If this isn’t your cuppa, someone combined Space Jam & Hamilton. I’m sorry, you’re welcome.

Whiplash, allergies, climate shifts, and shot side effects. In flux, your world might have some flu-like symptoms. Slow down, rest up. The sun will be here shortly, gotta look busy.

Yours,