AfTea - K-Hive, Swedish Conscription, and NYC's Dinerpocalypse

Afternoon Tea | 7.24.24 | TNaj

Wednesday hotness is becoming Hump Day Normalcy, so cool off with fun reads, ambient memes, and the newly dropped Brisk God. Paying subscribers get new poetry for Jarod Anderson, relevance from Dostoyevsky, and an amazing song named Mr. Watson by Cruel Youth.

From Gaza to Iran: What Kamala Harris’ Middle East policy could look like (Al-Monitor) & Harris' National Security Adviser Sounds Like The Status Quo on Israel/Palestine (Forever Wars) Now that Kamala is the nominee, we can take a moment to look past the coconut memes and dive into Kamala Harris’ presumptive policies. This isn’t about finding reasons to stay home on election day, it’s to understand what the next 4 years of a Democratic Party administration could look like. Clear eyes, sober understanding, rational discussion, second star to the right, straight on until morning.

Europe eyes Sweden’s conscription model to solve troop shortage (Politico.EU) Sweden screens 100k teens for military service annually. I don’t know that any branch of our armed forces could do this in a single year, much less annually with no fanfare. So, other EU countries are trying to copy Sweden’s homework.

I pushed for press freedom in Hong Kong. The Wall Street Journal fired me. (Columbia Journalism Review) The Wall Street Journal does not deserve a single red cent of yours. If you want financial news, use Bloomberg, the London Financial Times, or hell, even Axios.

Sharks in Brazil test positive for cocaine (CNN Science) Speaking of finance! Sharks are swimming in cocaine-infested waters in Brazil. Meaning the sequel to Cocaine Bear is such a low hanging fruit, the sharks could probably jump out of the water and grab it after another couple of key bumps.

@brisk.god @brisk.god ♬ original sound - Brisk God

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Kenya’s biggest protest in recent history played out on a walkie-talkie app (RoW) Zello, the push-to-talk walkie-talkie app, is now being used to organize massive protests across Kenya. No paper-trail, auto-deleting voice messages, smart work all around.

How the “Working Class Republican” Scam Works (Hamilton Nolan) The GOP hasn’t been a friend to workers for my entire life. If someone tells you Republicans will fight for wages, tips, or labor protections, laugh in their face. Or better yet, record them saying it and you laughing their face, then upload it to social media.

Southern California fast food jobs hit record high despite minimum wage hike (OC Register) This is the second month in a row this happened, since the minimum wage hike was passed. It’s almost as if management was lying about how many people they would need to fire if the bill passed, again.

DHS Has a DDoS Robot to Raid Smart Homes (404 Media) Everything the gov’t develops as an offensive digital weapon eventually finds its way into the hands of the private sector & bad guys. Expect this to show up in black-hat hacking attacks in about 18 months.

Astoria’s Neptune Diner set to close its doors for good this Sunday (Astoria Post) The individual diner has a special place in my heart, but the story details how a plurality of landmark diners in Queens are gone. The world looks so different than when millennials were in college, I wonder where the kids will go for food late night now.

Joby demonstrates potential for emissions-free regional journeys with landmark 523-mile hydrogen-electric flight (Joby Aviation) Flying Cars! They’re actually coming, and could eventually be a great solution for regional travel, or long-hauls if Crowdstrike keeps blowing up air travel.