FD Afternoon Tea 11.2.2020 - One More Day

Tracking the shenanigans armed extremist groups are getting up to, FB charged Biden twice as much as Trump for ads, BTS vs. QAnon, security as identity, profits dwindle during the Streaming Wars, and the true reason why Daylight Savings Time is still a thing. It is Monday, November 2nd 2020, and this is the Tea.

#ElectionWatch: What to expect from armed extremist groups on election day (DFRLab - Medium) DFRLab out of Atlantic Council is one of the few groups that keeps their fingers on the pulse of the various militia, pro-gunner, and boogaloo groups that might be in play tomorrow. Know thine enemy.

A Message for Reluctant Trumpers of Good Faith (The Bulwark) Specifically not for people left-of-center or MAGA cultists, but if you know anyone lamenting the death of Reagan’s GOP, this might be the read that tilts them over the line.

Stolen Trump signs lead to 3 people shot (WIBW-13) This is remarkable, not just because it’s exactly the violence left-of-center people were worried about as the rhetoric escalated. Also because that three people were hospitalized after this gun violence and no one was arrested.

Facebook Charged Biden a Higher Price Than Trump for Campaign Ads (The Markup) This is a repeat of the 2016 story, where Hillary’s campaign was charged similar multiples. Facebook quickly brushed this aside by referring to the cost being generated by their internal systems. But given FB’s systems are opaque, while the average Biden paid was almost exactly 2x the avg Trump paid, this is not the crisis ointment Zuck thinks it is. See also the ongoing coverage Mother Jones is dedicating to the proof WSJ posted about left-of-center sites like MJ being suppressed at scale.

No One Fights QAnon Like the Global Army of K-Pop Superfans (Bloomberg) 2020 headlines remain wackyl, but the best narrative of the year has to be the BTS Legion emerging as the dominant digital strike force across the world.

Death and Taxes (Tech Inquiry) A stunning evaluation of the connections between Big Tech & the military industrial complex. Seriously, to quote them: “Through a manual analysis of more than 1000 Form 10-K filings and proxy statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission, we stitched together both the entire (public) tax histories and peer relationships of 57 tech, staffing, and defense companies. We show that four times as many profitable companies in our sample had (worldwide) effective tax rates less than 21% after passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) than before.” It’s so comprehensive, I assume everyone responsible should not turn the keys to the ignition in their cars.

One Clear Casualty of the Streaming Wars: Profit (Medium) What happened to newspapers & magazines is happening to linear TV. As they move online and are unbundled, the margin vanishes. Evolve or die.

Who gets to feel secure? (Aeon) Reading this, I was struck by the relevance to this weekend’s Fury Road experience where TrumpTrucks smashed cars and tried to drive a Biden bus off the road. Trump & the right have talked about how they felt secure escorting the bus. Same as minorities having their rights ignored because it makes white supremacists feel secure.

Doomsday prepping for less crazy folk (icamtuf) Given the visibility of accelerationists and incendiary apocalypse worshippers, this document is rational, helpful, and almost boring. Great piece for people out there concerned about their stores/stocks.

“My bears are my lifeline”: the adults who sleep with soft toys (The Guardian) 44% of those polled say they’ve held on to their childhood teddy bears/dolls and one out of three still sleeps with a soft toy nightly. Given Western culture parents stop co-sleeping with their children after the first year, many children ended up tethering deeply comforting/soothing feelings to that toy. Don’t mess with bobo.

Daylight Saving Time as Americans know it was instituted by corporate lobbies, not farmers (Quartz) Surprise! DST is a thing because of Big Candy, Big BBQ, and Big Golf Ball. I wish I was kidding.

Song of the Tea: White Town’s “Your Woman” is one of those tracks that screamed for remixing, and this video involving Looney Tunes just puts it over the top. I’m so sad the next generation won’t learn about Wagner from a cross-dressing rabbit.

By all means stay home if you want, but don't bullshit yourself that you're not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote. ~David Foster Wallace

Yours,T