Afternoon Tea - Grave Leasing

Bezos thanked his employees for paying for his trip to Upper Sky, fallout related to the NSO group spreads, an underground subway line flooded in China, Peloton & Netflix are getting into gaming, and families of those murdered by Duterte’s regime have to cough up for grave leases. It’s Wednesday, July 21st 2021, and this is your Tea. (Dong rocket pictures provided by ShitYouShouldCareAbout)

Philippine drug war dead exhumed as grave leases expire (France24) Leasing a grave, as a concept, is the worst idea I’ve been presented with in months. Duterte’s orgy of violence against purported substance dependent, queer, and gang member Filipinos resulted in so many dead that they were buried in “Apartment Tombs.” And the tomb was leased for five years, and now the bodies are being removed if the families of the dead can’t pay grave leasing fees. What dystopian nightmare have we wrought?

Protests erupt in India’s Parliament over spyware scandal (Associated Press) & France’s Macron Tapped as Target for NSO Spyware by Moroccans, Investigation Reveals (Haaretz) & Why Is Russia Not Using Pegasus Spyware (The Moscow Times) As more and more of the Pegasus software is evaluated, and corporate spytech use is unearthed by more and more local press, I expect these protests to intensify globally. Interestingly, NSO did not sell tech that it peeled off of the West to the Russians, Russian intelligence makes its own tools, and then sells those on the open market.

Underground train fills with water as part of China suffers 'heaviest rain in 1,000 years' (Sky News) & China’s ‘iPhone City’ Relocates 100,000 After Floods Leave 12 Dead (Bloomberg) Drowning on a submerged subway? Thank you climate change for giving me a visualization of one of my core nightmares. The city got hit with intense heatwaves for days before attempting to absorb 8 months of rain in 24hrs.

White Alabama City Councilman Refers to Fellow Council Member as a ‘House N***’ (Daily Beast) I see we’re all just yelling the stage directions instead of just reading them out loud. Great job Emperor Tang, way to be a trailblazer for hatred discourse.

Jeff Bezos Ridiculed for ‘Tone-Deaf’ Victory Lap Thanking Amazon Workers and Shoppers: ‘You Guys Paid for All This’ (Mediate) See previous comment re: stage directions. As the kids say, it cost zero dollars and zero cents not to say that.

Majority of COVID misinformation came from 12 people, report finds (Guardian) & ‘I’m sorry, but it’s too late’: Alabama doctor on treating unvaccinated, dying COVID patients (AL.com) & A Louisiana doctor's COVID plea: 'If you don't choose the vaccine, you're choosing death' (Louisiana Advocate) Last year, we reported on people in Deep Red country who didn’t believe COVID was real, dying like this. Now we’re reporting on people are dying in Deep Red country who don’t believe the vaccine is real. When 20% of the country believes the vaccine actually implants a microchip into you, as per a poll from YouGov last week, I don’t know what to tell y’all.

Total COVID-19 cases rise to 71 at Tokyo Olympics (Associated Press) We’re still going through with this huh? With the unfuckable beds, the “licking someone might get you Delta’d out of competition” and everything else? Between this and the Norwegian handball team being fined for refusing to wear a bikini bottom, it feels so anachronistic & needlessly harmful.

Peloton Is Getting Into Gaming (Gizmodo) & Netflix confirms move into video games as its growth slows (Associated Press) I can’t wait for hardcore fitness people to turn into gamers. At that point, the circle will be complete, with min-max’ers of all tribes coming together to wreck reward systems and competitive ladders.

Why Misinformation Is About Who You Trust, Not What You Think (Nautilus) Nautilus is not a light read, but it is frequently the best read of my week. This is no exception. We live in the age of curation, as you reading this proves.

No Assembly Required (Food for Thought) It’s not just the office that people don’t really want to go back to. Pews are similarly empty across the Christian nation.

Song of the Tea: The COVID death of Pyotr Mamonov, the frontman of Zvuki Mu gave me an occasion to check this experimental/alternative rock band out. I’m so glad I did, these guys are wild. The track below, Rough Sunset, rolls as hard as any punk, thrash, or metal single. Because this publication is a fractal rabbit hole, if you want something even more innovative & experimental, Bandcamp has a list of artists from a sub-genre called Sovietwave, and it is wild.

You're not a star until they can spell your name in Karachi.~Humphrey Bogart

Yours,