Afternoon Tea 5.11.21 - Neo-Pentecostal Narco Militia

I think we've lapped all of the dystopian visions of paramilitary conflict at this point.

May 11, 2021

The GRU actually tried to destabilize a bunch of EU & Asian governments, a wealth manager reminds the rich that wage jumps make jobs more attractive, car companies are stripping gadgetry from cars due to the on-going chip shortage, and a gang in Rio called the Israel Complex is giving off strong “Church of Man” vibes. It’s Tuesday, May 11th 2021, and this is your Tea (source & methods of the photographer to get the above shot).

The rise of Brazil’s neo-Pentacostal narco-militia (OpenDemocracy) There’s a paramilitary crime syndicate in Rio. They call themselves the Israel Complex, and have partnered with neo-Pentacostal churches and drug trafficking gangs. Their aim? A “holy war” against other gangs & traditional Afro-Brazilian religions. This is a bit too close to the Imperium/Church of Man from Warhammer 40k for my tastes y’all.

How GRU Sabotage & Assassination Operations in Czechia and Bulgaria Sought to Undermine Ukraine (Bellingcat) Sprawling & comprehensive investigation by some of the best on the planet to connect a seeming random sampler of destabilizing national actions to a half dozen GRU operatives. It’s not just fake news folks, Russia has spent decades attempting to destabilize governments in Europe and Asia.

Finding it Hard to Hire? Try Raising Your Wages (The Big Picture) My favorite wealth manager says what we’ve all been thinking. And in such succinct terms, your townie Republican-voting friends who carry water for billionaires might actually get it.

Wages have lagged just about every measure over the past 40 years: CPI Inflation, Health care and education costs, productivity, corporate profits, C Suite compensation, even the number of billionaires seems to be growing faster than wages.

Want to hire qualified candidates who will fill jobs, generate revenue, create profits, and lower your overall cost structure? Perhaps you should consider offering higher starting wages.

Trump’s blog isn’t lighting up the internet (NBC News) & The Problem With and Necessity of Banning The President. (Where’s Your Ed At) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Deplatforming works. It worked with Milo, it worked with Alex Jones, and it’s working with Trump. Even though FB’s “Independent Oversight Board” kicked the can down the road. Ed Zitron breaks down why this step is needed better than anyone I’ve seen so far this year.

Researchers Say They’ve Uncovered a Massive Facebook Bot Farm From the 2020 Election (Mother Jones) & Trump Abused the System. Facebook Created It (Wired) & Is Facebook a Failed State? (Foreign Policy) Facebook can reach more people than the Pope, has been implicated in a string of genocides, and continues to refuse to police incursions that are launched from inside its borders. I’m not sure it’s a failed state, but I could be convinced it’s a Rogue State.

‘Elon’s Tweet Does Not Match Engineering Reality’: Tesla Engineer in Document (Jalopnik) This is my favorite type of reporting. Whenever a court case requires humans to actually explain reality vs. what some random CEO Billionaire says. In this case, Musky has been bloviating about how soon his magic cars will drive themselves, while the engineering situation is quite a bit different.

Chip Shortage Forces Carmakers to Leave Out Some High-End Features (Bloomberg) The chip shortage is getting so bad Nissan, Renault, and the industry is figuring out what computer stuff they can momentarily strip from cars so they can get the 2021 models out the door without the chips the world continues to wait for.

FCC’s Net Neutrality Proposal Marred by Millions of Fake Comments (WSJ) Remember Ajit Pai and the colostomy bag he swung around about how the country demanded net neutrality be voided? 80% of those 22million comments were astroturfed bullshit. But you knew that when he opened his mouth.

Thanks to a Horse, the Cancel Culture Debate Just Got Even Dumber (New Republic) Doped up horse and Fox News entertaining stupidity. Now here’s Tom with the weather.

Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects (Lund University) You know those “desperate savages” that are ridiculed by savvy European colonists throughout history? Turns out they knew some shit about bugs that Dr. Livingston had no clue about, I presume.

Brett Favre hasn’t repaid $600k in Mississippi welfare funds (USA Today) Favre got paid $1.1 million for speeches he didn’t give, but is somehow not under any agreement to pay back this stuff. Apparently his company, just took the money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, something I’m still a bit confused about.

I leave you with a duck who keeps eating garden mushrooms that occasionally have psilocybin in them. So basically, a duck that trips out.

Song of the Tea: Since I got a surprising amount of positive feedback on yesterday’s mashup, so you’re getting more of them this week! This fusion of Coldplay & System of a Down does two things. First, it showcases just how awesome of a frontman Serj is, and secondly, it takes your original impression that this can’t work, and punts it.

You, what do you own the world?How do you own disorder? DisorderNow somewhere between the sacred silenceSacred silence and sleepSomewhere between the sacred silence and sleepDisorder, disorder, disorder  

Yours,