FD Afternoon Tea 9.16.20

Meatpacking stupidity, acronym stupidity, and the phrase of the day "riot porn."

September 16, 2020

The Meatpacking Industry didn’t keep people safe, Misinterpretation of radio signals drive rumors of antifa setting fires, and MIT Technology Review introduces my new favorite term “riot porn.” It is Wednesday, September 16th 2020, and this is your Afternoon Tea.

Emails Show the Meatpacking Industry Drafted an Executive Order to Keep Plants Open (ProPublica) With the Meatpacking Industry already rife with exploitative practices, we shouldn’t be surprised. But this tier of naked corruption is also messing with America’s overall supply and pricing, so if holiday roasts are wildly expensive, people might start caring again in a hurry.

As wildfires rage, false antifacist rumors spur pleas from police (NBCNews) From what I can gather, morons heard radio chatter about “BLM” engaging in controlled burns, interpreted it as “Black Lives Matter” instead of “Bureau of Land Management,” and you can see where the episode goes from here.

Thousands of New York ‘Long Haulers’ Struggle with COVID-19 Months After Diagnosis (TheCity) More than 70,000 New Yorkers are still struggling with COVID-19 related symptoms, sometimes months after they were infected. (Related: JPMorgan sent traders home today after a positive test in office. They were one of the first investment banks to push hard for re-opening NYC.)

Malaysian man 'finds' monkey selfies on lost phone (BBC News) When you find your lost phone and a monkey took a ton of pictures and video on it…

Defective Dynasts Sell New York Mets To Prolific Financial Criminal, Fans Rejoice (Defector) David Roth is the only commentary on the Mets being purchased from the idle rich by the sometimes malevolent rich you should read.

Microsoft finds underwater datacenters are reliable, practical and use energy sustainably (Microsoft) Remember SeaQuest DSV? The Babylon 5 clone that took place under water in a far future Earth?

Irish lacrosse team withdraws from World Games so a Native American team could play (CTV News) The continuing romance between Native Americans and Ireland is one of the tiny rays of hope in this barren wasteland of a year.

“Video Unavailable” Social Media Platforms Remove Evidence of War Crimes (Human Rights Watch) Moving from paper to digital was supposed to keep records of things forever. And now we can destroy them forever too.

How an overload of riot porn is driving conflict in the streets (MIT Technology Review) Riot Porn, video editing for narrative construction, and its effects on public opinion produce the caustic feedback loop we find ourselves in.

Lest We Forget the Horrors: A Catalog of Trump's Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes. (McSweeney’s) Bookmark this list, it’ll be updated until the election:

Early in President Trump’s term, McSweeney’s editors began to catalog the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We called this list a collection of Trump’s cruelties, collusions, and crimes, and it felt urgent then to track them, to ensure these horrors — happening almost daily — would not be forgotten. This election year, amid a harrowing global health, civil rights, humanitarian, and economic crisis, we know it’s never been more critical to note these horrors, to remember them, and to do all in our power to reverse them. This list will be updated between now and the November 2020 Presidential election.

Song of the Tea: The Prodigy tweeted out they’re back in the studio (!!), today’s song has to be from them.

Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned.Yours,T