FD Afternoon Tea 9.24.20

Dirty Laundry, a secret inauguration, and a brain wrapped in aluminum foil

September 24, 2020

What do floors of empty/leased real estate, a secret inauguration, bags of dirty laundry and a real human brain that washed up on the beach in Wisconsin have in common? They’re all part of the news for you to nibble on while you sip. It’s Thursday, September 24th, and this is the Tea.

How Everyone From Foreign Governments to Federal Contractors is Quietly Lining Trump’s Pockets (Vanity Fair) Panoramic attempt by Vanity Fair to get a handle on the miasma of interest conflicts and pay offs flowing into Trump’s businesses. Gargantuan read, so I’ll just leave you with the last few sentences:

If it’s hard to keep up with all of this, that’s the point. There is simply too much money flowing between the federal government, President Trump, and private entities to investigate every deal—or the motivations behind it. Federal ethics officials do not even know who the president’s tenants are, much less what they pay or why they pay it. So the money keeps flowing. 

China has built 380 internment camps in Xinjiang, study finds (Guardian) While some of the reporting about Tibetans being railroaded into camps is being questioned, this satellite project from the Guardian and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute is beyond reproach, regrettably.

US Says Lukashenko Not Legitimate President Of Belarus (Barron’s) The EU has also refused to recognize the “secret inauguration” of Alexander Lukashenko, who has been resisting daily protests from the people of Belarus since the election on August 9th, largely suspected to have been stolen by said protesters.

Brain wrapped in aluminum foil washes ashore on Wisconsin beach (USAToday) Anyone lose a brain? It’s a little rancid and discolored, in case you know anyone buying.

Israel’s Netanyahu brings his dirty laundry to Washington. Literally. (Washington Post) And you thought it looked bad when you brought your laundry home that one time in your early 20s.

How Trump fell out of love with his generals, and why the feeling is mutual (Reuters) Wonderful deep dive into a boy king and his generals, some of those “best people” that Emperor Tang hired and fired.

The math of New York City's recovery (Axios) While life in one of the Anarchist Jurisdictions remains a good sequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, this write-up is one of the more hopeful things I’ve read about the recovery. My favorite part:

The people leaving New York are disproportionately older, richer, more established professionals — people who need the city less.

Sipping Question: Can someone convince me Microsoft didn’t name the new Xbox so confusingly on purpose, to benefit from fuzzy searches and sales to lower quality SKUs?

33 Things I Stole From People Smarter Than Me (Medium) Some obvious, some insightful, and some privileged as hell ways to do things, see things, or become what you want to be. This was a good one, once you can afford it:

I was at a gathering at the writer Neil Strauss’s house when he had everyone break down what an hour of their time was worth. The formula was simple: How much you make a year, divided by how many hours you realistically work. “Basically,” he said, “don’t do anything you can pay someone to do for you more cheaply.” This was hard for me to accept — still is — but coming to terms with it in my own way has made my life much, much better. There’s certainly privilege baked into this, and I’m lucky that I have the financial ability to follow it.

Unemployed New Yorkers can become poll workers without losing benefits: Cuomo (NY Daily News) Is there a reason this shouldn’t be made permanent? That plus putting all New Yorkers getting unemployment to the front of the line for jury duty. Dream Vendor “Canna_bars”Sentenced to Prison (Darknetlive) Not for the arrest of some dark web drug dealer, but for the disclosure that a picture of the culprit’s hand on Imgur was used by authorities to get a good enough copy of the dealer’s fingerprints to run against law enforcement databases. Which, is a pretty nifty trick.

Song of the Tea: Soft acoustic folk from Antiqcool…

Sometimes you stick the dismount, sometimes you run face first into the pommel horse.Yours,T