Afternoon Tea 9.22.21 - Onagrocracy

Strategic Reverberations, Cave Hand Prints, Braying Asses.

September 22, 2021

200,000 year old cave art, cars kill as many as guns, the AUKUS deal France was cut out of will make bigger waves than you think, free cars come with a catch, and the trial for the fate of Hong Kong has begun. It’s Wednesday, September 22nd 2021, and this is the Tea. Today’s vibe is brought to you by Blue Man Group, Venus Hum, one of the best dresses ever created, and Donna Summer.

Inside the Surreal Trial of the ‘Most Benevolent Terrorist in the World’ (VICE News) Remember Hong Kong? The activists are being charged as terrorists in one of the most jarringly dissonant trials that’s ever occurred.

The strategic reverberations of the AUKUS deal will be big and lasting (Economist) France has military hardware and bases in the Indo-Pacific region like we have bases ringing Iran. The anger that French military & defense contractors are about to funnel into fucking with shit, is le palpable. (Editor’s Note: We know, we just work here.)

America’s car crash epidemic (Vox) I was today years old when I learned as many Americans die from cars (vehicle occupants & pedestrians) as from guns.

Ryan Cooper on the drug pricing debacle (Sick Note) Here we sit, watching the elderly rich debate, using game theory and Robert’s Rules of Order, access to drugs that could extend the lives of millions of citizens who pay thousands of dollars for coverage annually that is supposed to do just that. This quote stuck with us:

The Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce coined the term "onagrocracy" to describe Italian fascism — "government by braying asses." Watching the Democratic Big Pharma toadies bought over the counter like a discount honey-baked ham ineptly dissemble about how they do too support drug price reform, just not in this particular format (the only one that has the remotest chance to be able to pass in the next decade, that is) puts me in mind of that phrase. As Eric Hobsbawm wrote in his autobiography: "Forced into the straitjacket of an 18th-century constitution reinforced by two centuries of talmudic exegesis by the lawyers, the theologians of the republic, the institutions of the USA are far more frozen into immobility than those of almost all other states."

Shein is the future of fast fashion. Is that a good thing? (Vox) & Paradise lost: The rise and ruin of couchsurfing.com (InputMag) Shein is the future of the internet, Couchsurfing is the past. This is a dark portend for us all.

These 200,000-Year-Old Hand and Footprints Could Be the World’s Earliest Cave Art (Smithsonian) We are all so similar, crying out, asking the void to remember us any way it can.

Finally, the end of leaded gas (National Geographic) & Why most gas stations don’t make money from selling gas (The Hustle) Leaded gas contributed to so much death and suffering. With the lion’s share of cigarettes being sold at gas stations, the electrification of the industry is going to change the health of a lot of people around the world.

Car With ‘Free Car’ Sign On It Had Dead Body In Trunk (Jalopnik) Pro-Tip: If the car has the words “Free Car,” spray painted on it, maybe don’t bring it home before you give it a good once over.

Poem of the Tea: When you see someone say so much with so little, you have to stop and appreciate it.

Yours,