The Weekly Town Crier (02/19/21)
All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (02/19/21).
We’ll Miss You (?):
Read “Chick Corea, Jazz Keyboardist and Innovator, Dies at 79” at New York Times.
Read “Influential jazz drummer Milford Graves has passed away at 79” at NME.
Read “Charles Boyer, Disney Legend and Master Illustrator, Passes Away” at Disney Information Station.
Read “Died: Carman, Christian Showman Who Topped Charts with Triumphant Faith” at Christianity Today.
Read “Rush Limbaugh, conservative media icon, dead at 70 following battle with cancer” at CNN.
Read “U-Roy, Reggae and Dancehall Innovator, Dies at 78” at Pitchfork.
Read “Prince Markie Dee, The Fat Boys Rapper, Dies at 52” at Spin.
Religion and Stuff:
Read “Getting serious (and precise) about Christian nationalism” at Religion News Service.
Read “The Real Origins of the Religious Right” at Politico. “They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.”
Read “Christian Prophets Are on the Rise. What Happens When They’re Wrong?” at New York Times.
Read ‘On the Biblical and Historical Doctrine of the Trinity: A Response to Wayne Grudem” at Logos Academic.
Read “L.A. church to host indoor conference of 3,000 attendees, despite public health order” at Los Angeles Times.
Read “John MacArthur’s Grace Community church postpones event after health officials balk” at Religion News Service.
Read/Listen to “Ravi Zacharias Pressured Me to Get an Abortion” at Roys Report.
Read “You Are One Step Away from Complete and Total Insanity'“ by David French. “The inside story of how Ravi Zacharias’s ministry concealed and enabled his abuse.”
Read “How should we respond to the Ravi Zacharias scandal?” at Christian Post.
Read “Enraged by Ravi (Part 1): The wreckage of Ravi Zacharias” by Russell Moore.
Read “Biden relaunches faith-based White House office” at The Hill.
Read “Moore welcomes White House faith-based office” at Baptist Press.
Read “Love The Sinner, Hate The Sin? A Look At Bigotry From The Pulpit” at Armchair Philosopher.
Read “Will religious progressives have real political impact?” at New Catholic Reporter.
Read “When religion was present — and notably absent — at the impeachment trial” at Religion News Service.
Read “Celebrating Ash Wednesday in a pandemic? There’s an app for that” at Religion News Service. “Catholic prayer and meditation app Hallow also has taken the day's most visible tradition online with an 'AshTag' filter on both Facebook and Instagram.”
Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:
Read “ND House passes bill barring trans youth from teams that match their gender identity” at The Hill.
Read “Violence against elderly Asian Americans in the Bay Area is rising” at SF Gate.
Read “A Year of Anti-Asian Violence” at Slate.
Read “Judge denies request to increase Kyle Rittenhouse's bail, won't allow prosecutors to see new address” at NBC News.
Read “White House press aide suspended for threatening Politico reporter” at The Hill.
Read “Rep. Cori Bush Demands Answers on Treatment of BLM Protesters vs. Trump Insurrectionists” at Rolling Stone. “We couldn’t scale a wall to try to get in — we would have been shot down off of that wall.”
Read ‘Biden calls for 'commonsense gun law reforms' on anniversary of Parkland shooting” at The Hill.
Read Juveniles Part Of A Huge Increase In Carjackings Across The Country” at NPR.
Read “Georgia state bar sends disciplinary complaint to pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood” at The Hill.
Read “As Biden Reopens ACA Enrollment, Are You Eligible To Sign Up Or Switch Health Plans?” at NPR.
Read “Georgia GOP legislator introduces bill to increase penalties for crimes committed during protests” at The Hill.
Read ‘Push For Greater Arizona Prison Oversight Led By Formerly Incarcerated People, Families” at KJZZ.
Read “Arizona bill would charge those who sell, share drugs linked to overdoses with murder” at AZ Central.
Read “South Carolina governor signs bill banning most abortions” at The Hill.
Read “New Zealand Will Offer Free Sanitary Products At Schools To Fight Period Poverty” at NPR.
This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):
Read “Trump 'made no attempt' to reach the National Guard to help overwhelmed Capitol Police, Rep. Castro says” at Yahoo.
Read “Nikki Haley breaks with Trump: 'We shouldn't have followed him'“ at MSN.
Read “Mark Finchem cleared of 82 ethics complaints related to the Jan. 6 riot” at AZ Mirror.
Read “Six people who guarded Roger Stone entered Capitol during attack” at The Hill.
Read “FBI Informant Panic Is Ruining Friendships All Over the Far Right” at Daily Beast.
Read “The last straw’: the US families ending love affair with grocery chain after Capitol riot” at The Guardian. “Families are boycotting Publix after a member of founding family donated $300,000 to the Donald Trump rally that preceded January’s deadly Capitol attack.”
Read “Pelosi says 9/11-style commission to investigate Capitol breach is 'next step'“ at The Hill.
Read “New Video Appears to Show Iced Earth’s Jon Schaffer Charging at Officers During Capitol Insurrection” at Consequence of Sound. “The metal guitarist faces six federal charges for his role in the January 6th riot.”
Read “Department of Homeland Security Confirms Neo-Nazi Leader Used to Work For It” at Vice. “The leader of terror group the Base once worked for an agency tasked with coordinating the U.S. government’s counterterrorism efforts.”
Read “Two Infamous White Nationalists Still Have a Platform for Their Podcast Somehow” at Vice. “The MMA fighters, one Russian and one American, are dispensing 'real world' advice on starting hate groups, on a podcast hosted by a San Francisco-based platform. Anti-extremism groups are calling for it to be taken down.”
Read “Federal prosecutors investigated Proud Boys ties to Roger Stone in 2019 case” at The Hill.
This Week With The Police:
Read “The Troubling New Practice of Police Livestreaming Protests” at Slate.
Read “Police pepper-spray 9-year-old Black girl; New video captures her distressed wait for EMTs” at ABC 7.
Read “LAPD Investigating Valentine-Like Post of George Floyd: “You Take My Breath Away” at Slate.
Read “What It Looks Like When the New York City Police Commissioner Has “Unchecked Power” Over Officer Discipline” at Pro Publica.
Read ‘Why Were Portland Police Guarding a Dumpster of Discarded Food?” at Vice. “People tried to salvage the perishable food a grocery story was throwing away during a power outage. Then the cops arrived.”
Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings
Read “Fauci: Stimulus bill needs to be passed for schools to reopen” at The Hill.
Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:
Read “ICE has no plan to vaccinate 13,860 immigrants in its custody against COVID-19. Here's how one of the US's most at-risk groups is falling through the cracks” at Business Insider.
Read “D.C.-Area Churches Encourage Community To Have ‘Faith In The Vaccine’” at Sojourners.
Read “How billions in pandemic aid was swindled by con artists and crime syndicates” at NBC News.
Read “Rep. Lesko: Hispanic people are 'very good workers' — but shouldn't get vaccines” at American Independent.
Read “The Vaccine Had to Be Used. He Used It. He Was Fired.” at New York Times.
Read ‘I wouldn’t be complaining.’ Gov. DeSantis threatens to pull coronavirus vaccine from communities that criticize distribution” at Sun Sentinel.
Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):
Read “Kevin Hart’s personal shopper has been charged with stealing $1million from the actor” at NME.
Read “Is the GameStop saga a sign of a stock market bubble?” at MarketPlace.
Read “The Four-Sentence Philosophy Paper” at Daily Nous. “Some philosophy professors have been assigning their students four-sentence papers to write.”
Read “Myth debunked: Blowing in your Nintendo games never actually fixed anything” at Geek Wire.
Read ‘The Last Duel Took Place in France in 1967, and It’s Caught on Film” at Open Culture.
Read “The Real Origins of the Religious Right” at Politico. “They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.”
Read “The fight over Larry King's estate centers around a handwritten will” at Los Angeles Times.
Read “Ford says it will go all-electric in Europe by 2030” at The Verge.
Read “Facebook Blocks News In Australia Over Government Plan To Force Payment To Publishers” at NPR.
Read “Why Do We Ever Play the National Anthem at Sports Games?” at Slate. “The Dallas Mavericks’ failed attempt to cancel it begs the question of why we do this in the first place.”
Read “2 million Texas households without power as massive winter storm drives demand for electricity” at Texas Tribune.
Read “No, frozen wind turbines aren’t the main culprit for Texas’ power outages” at Texas Tribune.
Read “Texas grid got crushed because its operators didn’t see the need to prepare for cold weather” at Washington Post.
Read “Texas Mayor Resigns After Fallout From Facebook Post Telling Town to 'Get Off Your A**' During Blackout” at Second Nexus.
Read “Beto: ‘We are nearing a failed state in Texas’ thanks to GOP leadership” at MSNBC.
Read “Texas Is a Failed State” at Discourse.
Read “Sen. Ted Cruz confirms he flew to Mexico as Texas grapples with power outages caused by severe weather” at Washington Post.
Internationalities:
Read “New Ebola outbreak declared in Guinea” at The Hill.
Read “Indian Climate Activist Arrested After Sharing Information on Supporting Farmworkers’ Protest” at Democracy Now.
Read “Federal prosecutors charge three North Korean hackers accused of conspiring to steal more than $1.3 billion” at CNN.
Read “DR Congo's mysterious metal monolith destroyed by mob” at BBC.
Politics And Sucheries:
Read ‘Anti-Trump Republicans Are in Talks to Form a Center Right Third Party and People Are So Here for It” at Second Nexus.
Read “Adam Kinzinger’s Lonely Mission” at New York Times. “Censured by his party and shunned by family members, Mr. Kinzinger, a six-term Illinois congressman, is pressing Republicans to leave Donald Trump behind — and risking his career doing so.”
Read “62 percent say third political party is needed in US” at The Hill.
Read “Joe Biden: 'I will not make that happen': Biden declines Democrats' call to cancel $50K in student debt” at NBC News. “Biden said he was prepared to cancel $10,000 in debt and the interest but anything more than that would require congressional action.”
Read “Joy Reid: Rush Limbaugh hardened ‘rural white listeners and weaponized white male grievance’” at MSNBC.
Read “The Real Origins of the Religious Right” at Politico. “They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.”
Read “Is It Time for the Republican Party to Split Apart?” by David French. “It's far from likely, but the Whig Party's demise in the 1850s could serve as precedent.”
Read “More people say Greene representative of Republican Party than Cheney” at The Hill.
Read “How History Will Remember Trump” at Slate. “Trump will be judged for a myriad of sins, but not all will be remembered.”
This Week In Political Corruption:
Read “Opinion: How Rush Limbaugh made the Trump presidency possible” at Washington Post.
Read “Donald Trump reportedly called Mark Zuckerberg and asked him to make changes to the panel that's now responsible for reviewing Trump's ban from the platform” at Yahoo.
Read “Senate acquits Trump in historic second impeachment trial over Capitol riot” at USA Today.
Read “Watch Senators Laugh at Trump Lawyer During Impeachment Trial” at Slate.
Read “Graham's call with Georgia's secretary of State will be investigated: report” at The Hill.
Read “Louisiana GOP votes to censure Cassidy over impeachment vote” at The Hill.
Read “Party leaders rip Republicans who voted to convict Trump” at Politico.
Read “Raskin: Trump found guilty in 'the court of public opinion and the court of history'“ at NBC News. “The lead House impeachment manager called the vote a "dramatic success in historical terms."
Read “No Regrets': House Managers Defend Their Decision Not To Call Witnesses” at NPR.
Read “Trump's actions during the Capitol riot put Pence in danger — and national security at risk” at MSNBC.
Read “Lin Wood Doxed Georgia Officials to Hundreds of Thousands of QAnon Supporters” at Vice. “The pro-Trump lawyer asked an ‘Army of Patriots’ on Telegram to dig up dirt on officials who will decide whether he is disbarred or not.”
Read “US sells $200m in weapons to Egypt despite human rights abuses” at Al Jazeera.”The $197m sale of Raytheon-made Rolling Airframe Missiles was requested by the Egyptian navy to improve coastal defences.”
Read “Josh Hawley dipped into campaign funds to help bankroll family trip to Universal Studios” at Salon.
Music-Related News and Such:
Read “When Chick Corea and Jazz-Fusion Acts Were Rock Stars” at Rolling Stone.
Read “Ex-Nirvana Members Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear Still Jam Together” at Spin.
Read “A New Generation Pushes Nashville to Address Racism in Its Ranks” at New York Times. “A small contingent of country artists and industry players have been speaking up in a business that likes to shut down dissent.”
Read “European festivals speak out on their return as Dutch government set date and allow trials” at NME. "We have to have an outlook that there will be events this summer. They will be safe and we can work with extra restrictions, but we can do that"
Read “Taylor Swift’s Rerecorded Album Releases Begin With ‘Fearless’ in April” at New York Times.
Read “Feed My Frankenstein: Alice Cooper Isn’t Slowing Down” at Spin. “50 years into his career, Cooper still wants more.”
Read “Nothing Is Flattening Music Like TikTok” at Vulture.
Read “Messin’ With the Hook: Our 1986 John Lee Hooker Feature” at Spin.
Read “Glorious Mistakes: A Conversation With Mogwai” at Treble.
Read ‘Springsteen ‘Visibly Swaying’ Before Drunken-Driving Arrest, Police Say” at New York Times.
Read “Pharrell Williams Cleared of Perjury Charges in “Blurred Lines” Lawsuit” at Okay Player.
Read “Streaming Services Pay $424 Million in Unmatched Royalties to Mechanical Licensing Collective” at Pitchfork.
Read “Chuck Johnson’s Ode to What’s Been Lost in California’s Fires” at New York Times.
Read ‘British musicians warn of devastating impact of new Brexit rules” at PRI.
Read “We’ve Got A File On You: Craig Finn” at Stereogum.
Read “Chris Cornell’s Wife Vicky Cornell Sues Soundgarden Over Proposed Buyout Offer” at Pitchfork.
Read “De La Soul Will Fight to “Save Their Music” in the Latest Episode of ‘Teen Titans GO!’” at Okay Player.
Listen: “Bill Mackay and Nathan Bowles - I See God” at Folk Radio.
Read “Haim on Their Lifelong Love of Joni Mitchell” at Rolling Stone.
Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:
Read ‘‘WandaVision’ Breaks Into Nielsen Top 10 Streaming Rankings” at Variety.
Read “Gina Carano, Ben Shapiro Team Up for Film After ‘Mandalorian’ Firing” at Variety.
Read “Dave Chappelle on why Chappelle's Show is back on Netflix: "I got my name back"“ at AV Club.
Read “Chris Harrison: Bachelor host to step aside over racism row” at BBC.
Read “David Boreanaz joins chorus of Buffy cast supporting Charisma Carpenter after Joss Whedon allegations” at AV Club.
Read “You can now stay at Buffalo Bill’s house from ‘Silence Of The Lambs’” at NME. “The house inhabited by Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs is now open for overnight stays.”
Read “Tim Burton is making a live-action Addams Family spinoff about Wednesday for Netflix” at The Verge.
Read “‘Paddington 3’ Officially in the Works” at Variety.
Read “Danny Elfman Reuniting with Sam Raimi for Doctor Strange 2 Score” at Consequence of Sound.
Books/Reading/Authors
Read about “The Instagram Account Sharing The Most Beautiful Libraries In The World” at The Mind Circle.