Afternoon Tea 6.1.21 - Prefer Not To

Texas Border Patrol dude smuggling migrants, USA caught selling seized Iranian oil, Brazil passed on 70 million shots, a killer drone did a thing it wasn’t told to do, and Naomi Osaka goes straight up Bartleby, the Scrivener. It's Tuesday, June 1st 2021, Stonewall was a Riot, Black Trans Lives Matter, and this is your Tea.

Killer drone ‘hunted down a human target’ without being told to (NY Post) Remember that campaign to stop killer robots? The killer robots are arriving y’all. (Editor’s Note: The best article on drones, swarms, and automated weapons remains this piece by Sarah Topol.)

Texas border patrol agent faces human trafficking charges after 180 migrants found in stash houses (MSN - National Post) Who Sucks? We suck! More specifically, the border patrol dude who is being indicted for “felony offences related to transporting undocumented individuals for private gain,” sucks. Three separate stash houses! Migrants held against their will with no PPE, so I’m guessing they weren’t piling them into a Dodge Omni to go to a local Walgreen’s and get the J&J shot.

US sells off Iranian crude oil seized off coast of UAE (Associated Press) We ganked a ship owned by Iran off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, labeled it as Iraqi crude (poorly) and sold it on the open market? Ok, that’s fucking gangster.

Brazil Let 70 Million Shots Get Away & Sealed Its COVID Fate (Bloomberg) Bolsonaro sucks, Exhibit #753, your honor.

How to Disagree with Someone More Powerful than You (Harvard Biz Review - 2016) Old read, but feels useful for the moment’s news.

Naomi Osaka Withdraws from French Open After Skipping Press, Says She Deals with Depression (People) & Naomi Osaka Fined $15,000 And Faces Suspension Over Boycotting Press Conferences (Forbes) & Ryan Reynolds Talks Candidly About His ‘Lifelong Pal, Anxiety’ (Self) Naomi Osaka was fined 15k for not wanting to sit around and field “how does it feel to lose?” after exhausting herself in front of millions of people. So, she withdrew from the French Open. I honestly couldn’t support her or her decision more. Anxiety & depression from press headassery is insane at her level. And if Ryan Reynolds still struggles deeply with anxiety, we can all stop pretending we’re invincible.

The Spacefaring Paradox (Slate) Not only is traveling from planet to planet going to suck, it doesn’t suck less when we get there. The Martian & The Dark Forest are great books that illustrate what the article is getting at:

Hoo Boy, the Feds Sure Have a Lot of Dirt on Big Rudy (Gizmodo) The journeys of our favorite Dark Carnival Pokémon might be coming to an end. The feds don’t generally like searching a lawyer’s office, as per how that looks. But America’s Lawyer might just have screwed up foreign agent stuff, which is a very different bag of donuts.

‘I Could Make Up a Fake Arrest and Put You in Jail’: Police Chief Agrees to Plead Guilty to Threatening Arrest Over Negative Facebook Post (Law & Crime) Hey Brian, don’t say the quiet parts out loud. Kinda gives away the game later on in court.

‘Please Help,’ Beg Those Who Lost $2 Million to Fake Elon Musks (Bloomberg) I’m shocked I have to say this but…Elon Musk will not ask you for money. Elon Musk does not need money from you, nor would he bring you in for a “crypto deal.” Unless you are standing next to Elon Musk and he says, with his mouth hole, that he needs money, do not give anyone who claims to be Elon Musk money.

Song of the Tea: So, I think live production from artists like Marc Rebillet, Beardyman, and others isn’t always the slam dunk some people think it is. It’s hard to keep people engaged while you’re building a compelling vibe, just ask any classic trance DJ on minute 6 of their build. This dude sings an apology to the cat for whatever caused it to yell.

(Editor’s Note: We’ll get back to actual music and cut down on the Herman Melville jokes tomorrow, we promise.)

Yours,