Afternoon Tea 6.24.21 - Schrödinger's Shots

Hong Kong’s last free paper bends to China, a building collapses in Miami, the Royal Navy & Russia may or may not have exchanged fire, there’s a zero cost bridge for sale in upstate NY, and the long, strange journey of our favorite Dark Carnival Pokémon might have come to an end. It’s Thursday, June 24th 2021, and this is your Tea.

Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy paper sells out final edition (Associated Press) Dark times for Hong Kong ahead. May Man be forgiven for his deep inhumanity to man.

Royal Navy ship off Crimea sparks diplomatic row between Russia and UK (Guardian) Only Russia recognizes Crimean waters around the territory it seized as Russian. They are playing the Taiwan game, but badly. So badly that during a British “innocent passage through disputed waters, there might have been fire shot across the bow of the HMS Defender. Russia initially claimed they’d shot and dropped bombs to force the destroyer back, but those statements were walked back & not supported by the UK. I wonder what consequences officially acknowledging those actions could have triggered, so it might be better to let that one go.

Florida building collapse latest: 3 dead, as many as 99 missing (ABC News) America is a nation obsessed with building things but allergic to maintaining them. The surveillance video of the collapse is harrowing. Given the pedestrian bridge collapse over DC-295 yesterday, I cannot imagine this is the last we’ll be hearing of stories like this.

Saudi Operatives Who Killed Khashoggi Received Paramilitary Training in U.S. (NY Times) Is there a ShockedCoin yet? Because if it could be powered by us being faux shocked by all of this bullshit, we’d all be squillionaires and mining it would cause the heat death of the universe.

Lord of the Roths: How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a $5 Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank (ProPublica) They really need to start making NFTs of shocked reactions. You can put $6,000 per year to a Roth IRA. Peter Thiel has one worth $5 billion. I’ll just leave it at that.

Rudy Giuliani is suspended from practicing law in New York over false statements about Trump election loss (CNBC) Our favorite Dark Carnival Pokémon has continued to spiral since the loss of his trainer, Cheese Whiz Giovanni. As even the youngest children know, Pokémon need kind, caring masters to make sure they can be their very best.

Ex-Marine and Neo-Nazi Told Followers How to Shoot Truckers to Dismantle Supply Chain (VICE) You know that “how many people would it take to paralyze the USA?” argument your friends have on Facebook? Someone thought they worked it out, all it takes is shooting 50 truckers a day.

A Charter School Named For the Author of "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" Is Union Busting (In These Times) ::deep, slow inhale:: People, can we please do the assigned reading. I swear, it’s actually good for you. You might even find it relevant to your every day life.

Peloton Treadmill Safety Update Requires $40 a Month Subscription (Motherboard) That treadmill you spent $4,000 for? The latest update Peloton pushed because the thing was eating small children and animals (I swear to Christ) costs you 40 bucks a month. Don’t want to pay? Congratulations on your fancy new paperweight!

Take this bridge, please (The Post Star) Want a bridge? I actually might have one to sell you up in Warren County.

Song of the Tea: Play yourself out to the weekend-eve with Notorious BIG off of Dead Wrong, mashed with sunny trumpet and vintage hip hop beats from Nieve & Soulchef.

Walk in the sun, hug your friends, tell them you love them. Slow down, you just might have made it without knowing.

Yours,