The Weekly Town Crier (03/05/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (03/05/27)





We’ll Miss You:

Read “Bunny Wailer, Reggae Legend and Wailers Co-Founder, Dies at 73” at Pitchfork.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “After Sermon Criticizing Wives’ Weight, Pastor Resigns as Moderator of General Baptist Meeting” at Roys Report.

Read “Spectacular Politics On the Culture of Trumpism” at The Bias Magazine. 

  • ReadThe Golden Trump Statue Is the Talk of CPAC. It Was Made in Mexico.” at Slate.

Read “White evangelicals' dominance of the GOP has turned it into the party of resistance” at CNN.

Read “First Jehovah’s Witness woman sentenced in Russia after faith declared ‘extremist’” at Religion News Service. “The faith group’s spokesman called the ruling ‘a mockery of the rule of law — both international human rights law as well as Russia’s constitution.’”

Read the opinion piece “Phil Johnson’s Defense of MacArthur’s Salaries & Nepotism Raises More Red Flags” at Roys Report.

Read “Meet the spouses whose marriages were destroyed by QAnon” at Salon. “A therapist who specializes in cult recovery says he's "never seen anything like this before"

Read “Appeals court decision allows sex abuse lawsuit against SBC's Paul Pressler to proceed” at Houston Chronicle.

Read “More than 500 evangelicals, other faith leaders condemn religion at insurrection as ‘heretical’” at Religion News Service.

Read “Major Evangelical Adoption Agency Will Now Serve Gay Parents Nationwide” at New York Times. “The decision comes as more cities and states require organizations to accept applications from L.G.B.T.Q. couples or risk losing government contracts.”

Read “Stryper’s Michael Sweet Fears It’s “Just a Matter of Time” Before the Bible Is Canceled” at Newsbreak.

Read “Shame, grace and #STOPtheSTEAL” at Religion News Service. “How we read the world depends on the kinds of stories we traffic in.”

Read “Sam Horn Resigns as President of The Master’s University and Seminary, Capping Three Years of Tumult” at Roys Report.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Second Former Aide Accuses New York Gov. Cuomo of Sexual Harassment” at Slate.

Read “Bruce Springsteen’s Drunken-Driving Charges Are Dismissed” at New York Times.

Read “Rep. Gosar denounces 'white racism' after controversial appearance” at The Hill.

Read “Cuomo Is Accused of Sexual Harassment by a 2nd Former Aide” at New York Times. “The woman, 25, said that when they were alone in his office, Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked if she “had ever been with an older man.”

Read “Marijuana use no longer automatic disqualification for Biden appointees” at The Hill.

Read “How Jane Fonda Convinces Her Famous Friends to Get Arrested” at Vulture.

Read “Supreme Court Seems Ready To Uphold Restrictive Voting Laws” at NPR.

Read “House fight for Trump's financial records poised to stretch into the summer” at Politico. “The House Oversight Committee reissued a subpoena for the former president’s accounting firm, Mazars USA.”

Read “D’Elia faces child-porn lawsuit from woman who says he had sex with her at 17” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “South Carolina Senate adds firing squad as alternative execution method” at The Hill.

Read “Nadria Tucker On Being Fired From ‘Superman & Lois’: ‘Toxicity’ Is Pervasive” at Huff Post. “The TV writer says she was dropped from the new CW show after pushing back on racist and sexist storylines and tropes.”

Read “Hours After an Employee Accused Him of Sexual Misconduct, Prominent Alaska Executive Resigns” at Pro Publica.

Read “Threats to lawmakers up 93.5 percent in last two months” at The Hill.

Read “DoD Report Describes Trump Doctor Ronny Jackson as a Lecherous Boozehound and All-Around Terrible Colleague” at Slate.

Read “Wray says no evidence of 'antifa' involvement in Jan. 6 attack” at The Hill.

Read ‘Refugees are being removed from flights to the US as they await Biden's signature” at CNN.

Read “Right-Wing Social Network Parler Files New Lawsuit Against Amazon” at Variety.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “The Boogaloo Bois Have Guns, Criminal Records and Military Training. Now They Want to Overthrow the Government” at Pro Publica.

  • Read “U.S. alleges Proud Boys planned to break into Capitol on Jan. 6 from many different points” at Washington Post.

Read “‘Q Shaman’ Deeply ‘Wounded’ And Disappointed That Trump Didn’t Pardon Him” at Forbes.

Read “Rioter who broke into Pelosi's office: Not 'fair' I'm still in jail” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “CPAC attendees boo, yell 'freedom' when asked to wear masks” at The Hill.

Read “Fauci Worried That U.S. Virus Cases Will Stick at 70,000 a Day” at Bloomberg.

Read “Trump Got Vaccinated Secretly, Because Otherwise He Might Have Helped the Country” at Rolling Stone. “Getting vaccinated publicly could have gone a long way toward dispelling Republican doubts about the Covid vaccine — so of course Trump didn’t do it.”

Read “Texas becomes biggest US state to lift COVID-19 mask mandate” at Associated Press.

Read “Texas and Other States Ease COVID-19 Rules Despite Warnings” at Time.

Read “Covid-19 Variant in Brazil Overwhelms Local Hospitals, Hits Younger Patients’ at Wall Street Journal.

Read “U.K. Extends COVID Insurance Scheme for Film and TV Industry, Renews Furlough” at Variety.

Read “Alamo Drafthouse files for Chapter 11, keeping COVID safety measures amid TX reopening” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “When Did the Pandemic Become Real for You?” at New York Times. “The World Health Organization declared the spread of the coronavirus a pandemic on March 11, 2020. But when was the instant you knew your life would change?”

Read “New York Music Venues Can Reopen at 33% Capacity in April, Governor Says” at Pitchfork.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Atlanta Has Created the Largest Free Food Forest in the Country” at Modern Farmer.

Read “Michaels to Go Private in Apollo Deal” at Wall Street Journal. “Private-equity firm Apollo Global Management’s acquisition offer values crafts retailer at $3.3 billion.”

Read “The Growing Threat Of Disinformation And How To 'Deprogram' People Who Believe It” at NPR.

Read “CPAC, conservatives and the culture war: Why Republicans will become more extreme in Trump's absence” at Salon.

Read ‘'The Sinking City' Developer Uses DMCA to Remove Its Own Game From Steam” at Vice.

Read “Keith Gill Drove the GameStop Reddit Mania. He Talked to the Journal” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Jeff Grosso: The life and death of skateboarding’s soul” at Los Angeles Times. “To best understand skateboarding — its counter-culture roots, its rise to the Olympics, its helter-skelter tale of competing styles, clashing customs and self-sabotaging plot twists — you need to understand Jeff Grosso.”

Read “Clubhouse Is Recording Your Conversations. That's Not Even Its Worst Privacy Problem” at Inc.

Internationalities:

Read “US intel: Saudi crown prince approved Khashoggi killing” at The Hill.

Read “How Europe Became the World’s Biggest Electric-Car Market—and Why It Might Not Last” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “US Missile Strike in Syria: What You Should Know” at Preemptive Love.

Read “Medics risk lives to treat injured in Myanmar anti-coup protests” at Al Jazeera.

Read “At Least 18 Killed In Another Bloody Day For Myanmar” at NPR.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Biden hails House passage of $1.9T virus bill, now to Senate” at KTAR.

Read “CPAC stage is shaped like a Nordic rune used on some Nazi uniforms” at Business Insider.

Read “Rep. Karen Bass: $10 and $12 are not livable wages, we need to have a $15 minimum wage” at MSNBC.

Read “Another New York Democrat Calls on Cuomo to Resign” at Bloomberg.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “McConnell says he'll 'absolutely' support Trump in 2024 if he's the GOP nominee” at CNN.

Read “Postmaster General DeJoy introduces plans to overhaul USPS, draws criticism” at MSNBC.

Read “Hawley gets boisterous ovation at CPAC for Electoral College objection” at The Hill.

Read “Rep. Ronny Jackson made sexual comments, drank alcohol and took Ambien while working as White House physician, Pentagon watchdog finds” at CNN.

Read “Biden administration still hasn't briefed top senators on Syria strike” at Politico.

Read “"This has gone beyond the messiah of President Trump": Former GOP congressman on why parts of the GOP can't let go” at MSNBC.

Read “Texas grid manager responsible for $16B in overcharges, says watchdog” at The Hill.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Justin Bieber Announces New Album Justice” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Freddie Gibbs Covers Gil Scott-Heron’s “Winter in America” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Spotify just unveiled “lossless” CD-quality music. Your move, Apple” at Fast Company.

Read “Primavera Sound 2021 Cancelled” at Pitchfork.

Read “Bigger Black: 5 Easy Pieces w/Steve Albini” at Eugene Robinson. “Five questions, not a single one about music, that's the deal.”

Read “Biggie Smalls, the Human Behind the Legend” at New York Times. “The new Netflix documentary “Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell” captures the rapper before fame, and history, got hold of him.”

Read “Council says “nothing has been agreed” on Reading Festival 2021 go-ahead” at NME.

Read “The Mighty Mighty Bosstones announce new album ‘When God Was Great,’ share new song” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “David Crosby on dinner with Joni, Phoebe Bridgers and the 50th anniversary of his haunted solo debut” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “A Guide to the Music of John Lurie” at Pitchfork.

Read “Tyler, the Creator Releases Song Used in Coca-Cola Commercial: Listen” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Inside Joss Whedon’s ‘Cutting’ and ‘Toxic’ World of ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel’ (EXCLUSIVE)” at Variety.

Read “Billy Ocean's Loverboy video is way weirder than you remember” at Boing Boing.

ReadSchitt’s Creek Mansion Returns to Market With Price Reduction” at Bloomberg.

Read “Meet the Songwriters Behind the ‘Wandavision’ Hit ‘Agatha All Along’” at New York Times. “It isn’t the first time the songwriting power couple has created an ear worm, having written the Oscar- and Grammy-winning “Let It Go” for the Disney animated movie “Frozen” and the Oscar-winning ballad “Remember Me” for the Pixar animated film “Coco.”

Read ‘Golden Globes org says it will recruit Black members after outcry’ at 11 Alive.

Read “Soul Is Pixar at Its Most Unpredictably Weird” at Vulture.

Read “Common to Produce Biopic of Voting Rights Activist Fannie Lou Hamer” at The Hollywood Reporter.

Read “Rachel Maddow Is Most-Watched In February, As MSNBC Leads All Cable Networks” at Forbes.

  • Read “‘We are lost’: Fox News suffers worst ratings in 20 years” at The Independent.

Read “Former Trump spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany joining Fox News” at The Hill.

Read “Spate of awards-season films track FBI tactics against Black activists” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “The Comics History Behind that WandaVision Credits Reveal” at Vulture.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “So you want to start reading comics?” at The Verge. “A guide to figuring out the best and most cost-effective methods.”

Read “Black Panther Comic Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates To Reboot Superman for DC, And More Movie News” at Rotten Tomatoes.

Read “Dr Seuss: Six books withdrawn over 'hurtful and wrong' imagery” at BBC.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read ‘YInMn Blue, the First Shade of Blue Discovered in 200 Years, Is Now Available for Artists” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Cuttlefish show self-control, pass 'marshmallow test' at Live Science.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Rooster with blade kills man during cockfight in Telangana” at New Indianan Express. “Accidentally, the knife that was tied to the rooster's leg, got pierced into Satish's groin, injuring him grievously.”

Read “Inside the Gently Competitive World of Giant Vegetable Growing” at Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “Judge sides with Senate, says Maricopa must turn over election materials for audit” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Wildlife, rights coalition asks Biden to remove miles of Arizona's border wall” at Tucson.com.

Read “Apple and Google lobbyists are swarming Arizona over a bill that would reform the app store” at Protocol.

Read “Bill purging Arizona early voting list clears state Senate’ at KTAR.

The Weekly Town Crier (02/26/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (02/26/21).




We’ll Miss You:

Read “Akron/Family’s Miles Seaton Has Died at 41” at Pitchfork.

Read “Johnny Pacheco, Who Helped Bring Salsa to the World, Dies at 85” at New York Times.

Read “Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Beat Poet And Small Press Publisher, Dies At 101” at NPR.

Read “John Baker, founder of the Christian support group Celebrate Recovery, has died” at Religion News Service.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Founders Ministry President: VP Kamala Harris “Going to Hell” at Word & Way. “While defending Southern Baptist pastors who called Vice President Kamala Harris a “Jezebel,” prominent Southern Baptist pastor Tom Ascol declared Harris was going to hell.” 

Read “New planets raise old questions” at Religion News Service. “The discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a nearby dwarf star, Trappist-1, is raising lots of questions with religious implications.”

Read “Christians, Conspiracy Theories, and Credibility: Why Our Words Today Matter for Eternity” at Lifeway Research.

Read “More Christian Groups Cut Ties with Ravi Zacharias & RZIM” at Roys Report.

  • Read “Ministry leaders’ rush to empathize with Ravi Zacharias is beyond alarming” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “Ravi Zacharias posthumously defrocked, ministry suspends fundraising after abuse report” at Religion News Service.

Read “As US refocuses anti-extremism programs on far right, many Muslims still oppose them” at Religion News Service. “After the Capitol attack, the Biden White House called for countering violent extremism programs to shift to a focus on white supremacists. But Muslim groups say the programs are still a waste of resources.”

Read “Before Rush Limbaugh, Father Coughlin was America’s first demagogue of the airwaves” at America Magazine.

Read “Southern Baptists divided over politics, race, LGBTQ policy” at SBC News. “Divisions over race, politics, gender and LGBTQ issues are roiling the Southern Baptist Convention ahead of a meeting of its executive committee next week.”

Read “Evangelicals perfected cancel culture. Now it’s coming for them.” at Religion News Service. “One Alabama megachurch preacher is experiencing a cautionary tale about a central spiritual idea: What goes around comes around.”

Read “Why Is it So Hard to Reach the Christian Conspiracy Theorist?” by David French. “When fellowship is superior to facts.”

Read “George Saunders on What Buddhists Can Offer the World Right Now” at Tricycle.

Read ‘Fewer Churches Held In-Person Services in January” at Christianity Today.

Read “Palestinian Christians Promised an Outsized Voice in New Legislature” at Christianity Today.

Read “SBC president J.D. Greear: “God did not call Southern Baptists to save America” at Religion News Service. “In a speech to the SBC Executive Committee meeting, Greear asked, “Do we want to be a gospel people, or a Southern culture people? Which is the more important part of our name — Southern or Baptist?” “We should mourn when closet racists and neo-Confederates feel more at home in our churches than do many of our people of color,”

  • Read “Southern Baptists Expel Two More Churches Over Abuse” at Christianity Today. “Top leaders address divides in the denomination at the first in-person Executive Committee meeting in a year.”

  • Read “Floyd, Greear stare down division, call for refocus on the Great Commission at EC meeting” at Baptist Press.

Read “Written in Protest The impeachment vote was a vote for white supremacy” at Religion News Service. “The refusal to confront the white supremacy at the Capitol is a refusal to reconcile America’s lofty democratic rhetoric with the state of its floundering institutions.”

Read “No, Rush Limbaugh Did Not Hijack Your Parents’ Christianity”at Religion Dispatches. “Many conservative Christians embraced Rush Limbaugh because they had already embraced a faith that championed an us-vs.-them militancy... and a thinly veiled misogyny that kept women in their (God-given) place.”


Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Federal judge temporarily blocks South Carolina 'heartbeat' abortion ban” at CNN.

Read “Nazi Concentration Camp Guard Sent to Germany From Tennessee” at Bloomberg.

Read “New Mexico Legislature moves to preserve abortion rights” at Associated Press.

Read “Iowa lawmaker Brad Zaun cited for having gun at airport” at Des Moines Register.

Read “Woman who gave birth alone in cell secures $200k settlement” at Associated Press.

Read “Whistleblowers: Software Bug Keeping Hundreds Of Inmates In Arizona Prisons Beyond Release Dates” at KJZZ. “Sources say Department of Corrections leadership has known about the problem since 2019.”

Read “New Jersey governor signs bills legalizing marijuana” at The Hill.

Read “Supreme Court Clears Way For NY Prosecutor To Obtain Donald Trump’s Financial Records” at News and Guts.

Read “Supreme Court won't review Pennsylvania GOP election lawsuits” at The Hill.

Read “Mike Lindell Just Got Sued for $1.3 Billion Over Election Conspiracies” at Vice.

Read “Minnesota returns land to Lower Sioux Indian Community after decades-long battle” at The Hill.

Read “Supreme Court turns down Stormy Daniels's defamation suit against Trump” at The Hill.

Read “James Franco Reaches Settlement with Former Students in Sexual Exploitation Suit” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “UN chief labels white supremacy a 'transnational threat'“ at The Hill.

Read “Why Clarence Thomas' Trump-like dissent in election case matters” at MSNBC.

Read “Illinois governor signs bill making state the first to end cash bail” at The Hill.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Acting Capitol Police Chief, House Sergeant at Arms to testify before House Appropriations Committee” at The Hill.

Read “U.S. alleges wider Oath Keepers conspiracy, adds more charges in Jan. 6 Capitol riot” at Washington Post.

Read “Feds Charge Pa. Cop For Rioting During Capitol Insurrection: ‘I May Need A Job’” at Huff Post.

Read “His pastors tried to steer him away from social media rage. He stormed the Capitol anyway.” at Washington Post.

Read “Several Charged Capitol Rioters Complained On Social Media About Antifa Getting Credit For Their Work” at Comic Sands.

Read “Oath Keeper claims she was VIP security at Trump rally before riot and says she met with Secret Service agents” at CNN.

Read “Former North Miami Beach cop went live on Facebook from inside the Capitol during riot” at Miami Herald.

Read ‘Justice Dept. Is Said to Be Examining Stone’s Possible Ties to Capitol Rioters” at New York Times.

Read “Reporter's Video From Inside Senate On Jan. 6 Shows A Crowd Prepared For Violence” at NPR.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Video Shows NYPD Cop Repeatedly Punching a Restrained Man in the Head” at Vice.

Read “Phoenix Council Debates Moving Money From Police Oversight To Homeless Services” at KJZZ.

Read “Newly released video shows deputies confront Black man over alleged jaywalking before fatally shooting him in San Clemente” at KTLA. “The deputies themselves can be heard debating whether Kurt Reinhold was jaywalking, with one telling the other, “Don’t make case law.”

Read “Martin Gugino sues city of Buffalo, mayor and police after fracturing skull” at Religion News Service. “A grand jury declined to indict the Buffalo police officers, but the Catholic social justice activist filed a civil suit alleging his constitutional right to peaceably protest was violated.”

Education and The Learnings, And/Or School Re-Openings

Read “Cornel West Says Harvard Denied Him Tenure Consideration, Calls It 'Political'“ at Huff Post.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Watch “Fmr. FDA Commissioner: Vaccine supply could exceed demand as soon as April” at MSNBC.

Read ‘Sedentary and stressed? Get outside to improve health during COVID, experts advise” at Cronkite News.

Read “Israel: Pfizer vaccine prevents 98.9 percent of COVID-19 deaths” at The Hill.

Read “Aging Out of Foster Care During COVID-19 Pandemic Brings Additional Challenges” at Teen Vogue.

Read “Meghan McCain calls for Biden to remove Fauci” at The Hill.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Video shows man screaming 'get a f---ing job' at family in line for church's food drive” at The Hill.

Read “Robinhood CEO apologizes for limiting GameStop trades” at MSBC.

Read “Politico finds Ted Cruz's Cancun scandal 'refreshingly normal'“ at The Week.

Read “DeSantis to lower Florida flags in honor of Limbaugh” at The Hill.

Read “Kim Kardashian Reportedly Files To Divorce Kanye West” at MTV.

Read “Why Were There So Many Serial Killers Between 1970 and 2000 — and Where Did They Go?” at Rolling Stone. “The answer is manyfold — encompassing everything from sociological changes, to biology, to technology, to linguistics.”

Read ‘Turkish Garbage Collectors Open a Library from Books Rescued from the Trash” at Goodnet.

Read “Free speech on campus is to be protected, but the war against cancel culture rages on” at Telegraph.

Read “Coolidge man fakes kidnapping to get out of work, police say” at 12 News.

Read “Some Texans got electric bills up to $17,000 after the storm. How does that happen?” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Power Companies Get Exactly What They Want”: How Texas Repeatedly Failed to Protect Its Power Grid Against Extreme Weather” at Pro Publica. “Texas regulators and lawmakers knew about the grid’s vulnerabilities for years, but time and again they furthered the interests of large electricity providers.”

Read “The Comedy Industry Has a Big Alt-Right Problem” at The New Republic. “How safe spaces for transgressive humor, both online and in real life, helped breed a hateful ideology.”

Read “Twitter Kicked Donald Trump Out and Its Stock Surged to a Record” at Bloomberg.

Read “Mark Changed The Rules”: How Facebook Went Easy On Alex Jones And Other Right-Wing Figures” at Buzzfeed News. “Facebook’s rules to combat misinformation and hate speech are subject to the whims and political considerations of its CEO and his policy team leader.”

Read “Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen Launch Spotify Podcast” at The Hollywood Reporter.

Read “28-Year-Old Dad-to-Be Dies in Explosion While Building 'Gender-Reveal' Device” at People.

See “Woman Yelling at Cat" in LEGO” at Boing Boing.

Read “The Army Is Building a New High Powered Laser” at Vice. “The Army wants to build a new kind of laser that fires in 1 quadrillionth of a second.”

Read “How Disney is using ‘Star Wars’ to help Chevy sell electric cars” at Los Angeles Times.

Internationalities:

Read ‘US sanctions inflicted $1 trillion damage on Iran’s economy: FM” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Canada's parliament declares China's treatment of Uighurs 'genocide'“ at BBC.

Read “North Korean Defector’s DMZ Crossing Raises Questions About Border Security” at Wall Street Journal. “Man swam across the border, went through a drainage conduit and appeared on South Korean military cameras eight times before being detected.”

Read “China denies requiring anal swabs from US diplomats” at BBC.

Read “US bombs Syria facilities used by Iran-backed militia; first airstrikes under Biden” at USA Today.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Ocasio-Cortez calls for full investigation of Cuomo's handling of coronavirus in nursing homes” at The Hill.

Read “Mike Pence Declines Invite to CPAC Event Where Donald Trump Will Speak” at Newsweek.

Read “Progressive caucus chair: Income thresholds for direct payments should stay at $75,000” at The Hill.

Read “The GOP is rapidly becoming the blue-collar party. Here's what that means” at NBC News.”Most of the GOP's blue-collar growth took place during the presidency of Donald Trump.”

Read ‘Trump to claim total control of GOP” at Axios. “In his first post-presidential appearance, Donald Trump plans to send the message next weekend that he is Republicans' "presumptive 2024 nominee" with a vise grip on the party's base, top Trump allies tell Axios.”

Read “Florida official tells offices to disregard DeSantis order to lower flags in Limbaugh's honor” at The Hill.

Read “Riot Romney predicts Trump would win the 2024 G.O.P. nomination if he ran for president.” at New York Times. “He has by far the largest voice and a big impact in my party,” Mr. Romney said.

Read “Bill would strip pension for president convicted of felony” at The Hill.

Read “Why Biden Can’t Fire Postmaster General Louis DeJoy” at Slate. “Trying to force DeJoy out could lead to constitutional chaos.”

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “McConnell Wants the Law Changed to Ensure He's Replaced by a Republican If He Leaves the Senate Early” at Second Nexus.

Read “Georgia Republicans Are Doubling Down on Racist Voter Suppression” at Mother Jones. “After Black voters turned out in record numbers, the GOP wants to make it harder to vote.”

Read “Matt Schlapp on Banishing Mitt Romney From CPAC: I Would Be ‘Afraid For His Physical Safety’ If He Came” at Mediaite.

Read “Trump’s blunt weapon: State GOP leaders” at Axios. “Virtually every Republican who supported impeachment was censured back home, or threatened with a primary challenge.”

Read “Trump to reemerge on political scene at CPAC” at The Hill.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Dinosaur Jr’s Green Mind Turns 30” at Spin. “We spoke with frontman J Mascis about the band’s early days, and why 'Green Mind' is still a pivotal work.”

Read “Sub Pop opens new flagship record store in Seattle” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Courtney Love Says She Stopped Acting Because of “A Bunch of #MeToos” at Consequence of Sound. ‘"No one would believe me, and it wouldn't stop. So I left, and it left."

Read “Decades Since ‘3 Feet High & Rising’ & De La Soul Still Isn’t In Control Of Its Legacy” at Okay Player. “In an age where countless veteran rap acts are benefiting off of nostalgia, pioneering hip-hop group De La Soul hasn’t fully been able to do the same.”

Read “Bill Callahan, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy & Cassie Berman Cover Silver Jews’ The Wild Kindness’” at Jambase.

Read “Marilyn Manson under investigation by LA County Sheriff’s Department” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Browse Jerry Garcia’s guitars.

Read “José González Returns With First New Song in 5 Years” at Pitchfork.

Read “R.I.P. Miles Seaton of Akron/Family” at Talkhouse. James Toth (Wooden Wand) remembers his friend.

Read “Daft Punk Break Up” at Pitchfork. “The legendary dance duo have called it quits 28 years after forming in Paris.”

Read “U-Roy: the singularly musical toaster was a vital part of reggae's bloodline” at The Guardian. “His inspired technique made toasting into an international phenomenon, yet he was endearingly modest to the end.”

Read “Dinosaur Jr. Announce New Album, Share New Song “I Ran Away”: Listen” at Pitchfork.

Browse Bandcamp’s picks for “The Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp: February 2021.”

Read “Can Live Series Begins With Release Of 1975 Stuttgart Show” at The Quietus.

Read “Spiritualized to Reissue Their First Four Albums on Vinyl” at Pitchfork.

Read “Post Malone Covers Hootie and the Blowfish for Pokémon Day Celebration” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Uproar at KCRW as former producer accuses public radio giant of 'blatant racism'“ at Yahoo.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “What Are the Commercials in WandaVision Telling Us? at Vulture.

Read “32 Memorable ‘Muppet Show’ Musical Moments to Stream on Disney+” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “David Lynch’s Industrious Pandemic” at New Yorker. “Checking in with the director as he turns seventy-five.”

Read “Disney+ Adds Disclaimer to The Muppet Show” at Consequence of Sound. “The streaming platform warns viewers of "negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures."

Read “E.T. II, the mega-dark sequel that never happened” at Boing Boing.

Read “Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn trash HBO documentary series as a ‘hatchet job’” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “From Heroes to WandaVision: How superheroes learned to meet TV halfway” at AV Club.

Browse Paste’s picks for “The 10 Best Movies on Apple TV+ Right Now, Ranked.”

Read “Tom Morello to Serve as Executive Music Producer on Netflix’s ‘Metal Lords’ Film” at Rolling Stone. “Coming-of-age comedy about high school metal band to premiere later this year.”

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Brian Eno Lists 20 Books for Rebuilding Civilization & 59 Books For Building Your Intellectual World” at Open Culture.

Read “Stan Lee and the Dot-Com Disaster” at Vulture.

Read “How the Internet Archive Digitizes 3,500 Books a Day–the Hard Way, One Page at a Time” at Open Culture.

Read “Cindy McCain planning 'intimate memoir' of life with John McCain” at The Hill.

Read “What Are Magazines Good For?” at New Yorker. “What is the cultural sway of magazines when there are 20-year-old TikTok influencers with many more subscribers than Time?”

Design/Artsy Things:

Browse “Uncanny Portraits of Perfectly Symmetrical Pets” at Wired.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “First Arctic Navigation in February Sends a Worrying Climate Signal” at Bloomberg.

Local:

Read “37 suspects accused of child sex crimes arrested in Phoenix-area” at AZ Family.

Read “Banner Health Eases Visitor Restrictions” at KJZZ.

Read “What did Allister Adel know about protest ‘gang’ charges?” at ABC 15. “ABC 15 obtained radio calls and dispatch logs that show (a specific MCAO prosecutor) was directly advising Phoenix police officers before the arrests against the group were even finalized on the night of the protest."

Read “The U.S. Air Force is going to set up a distribution center in Glendale and give out bottled water to nearby residents/business owners who had their drinking water contaminated by Air Force activity” at AZ Central.

Read “Spend Or Save? Phoenix Estimates $153 Million Budget Surplus” at KJZZ.

The Weekly Town Crier (02/19/21)

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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.

ReadGeorgia 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.

The Weekly Town Crier (02/12/21)

newester.jpg

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (02/12/21)


We’ll Miss You:

Read “Christopher Plummer dead as Sound of Music star dies aged 91” at Daily Record.

Read “US congressman Ron Wright dies with coronavirus, aged 67” at BBC.

Read “Supremes Co-Founder Mary Wilson Dead at 76” at Pitchfork.

Read ‘Elliot Mazer, Engineer-Producer for Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, and the Band, Dead at 79” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Larry Flynt, Founder of Hustler Magazine, Dies at 78” at Variety.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “An American Lent: It’s time for evangelicalism to embrace the act of confession” at Religion News Service. “Without disciplines like corporate confession and Lent, there is little within popular evangelicalism to restrain the triumphalism of white American culture from overshadowing the cross of Christ.”

Read “A Catholic scholar weighs Biden’s future with Vatican and US bishops” at Religion News Service. 

ReadChristian Rapper Lecrae Brushes Off GOP Activist’s Attempt To Cancel Him” at Yahoo.

Read “Faith-based refugee resettlement groups describe what it will take to rebuild program after Trump cuts” at Religion News Service.

Read “No touching! Churches get ready for Ash Wednesday in a pandemic” at Religion News Service.

Read “LGBTQ singer-songwriter ‘GameStops’ Christian music with No. 1 Christian album on iTunes” at Religion News Service. “‘Preacher’s Kid’ carries a parental advisory for explicit lyrics and at turns lacerates youth group lock-ins and short-term mission trips — staples of an evangelical Christian upbringing — while professing a complicated faith.”

Read “Still Baptist. Still evangelical” at Karen Swallow Prior at Religion News Service. “My childhood church has come to mind a lot lately, perhaps because these days in church life have so dismayed and disoriented me.”

Read “If I Were an Abuser, What Church Would I Want to Attend?” by Dr. Nancy Murphy.

Read “Welcoming Migrants and Refugees: A Biblical Ethic of Kinship” at Christianity Today.

Read “Don’t Immanentize the Eschaton: Against Right-Wing Gnosticism” at The Public Discourse.

Read “It’s Time to Talk About Violent Christian Extremism” at Politico.

Read “Most Evangelicals Support Women in Church Leadership” at Christianity Today. “Despite the ongoing debates over gender roles, surveys show significant agreement in favor of female Sunday school teachers, worship leaders, speakers, and preachers.”

Read “Evangelist Ravi Zacharias taught his followers to ask tough questions — just not about his sexual conduct” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Religion Evangelist Ravi Zacharias engaged in rape, financial misconduct and spiritual abuse, report says” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Ravi Zacharias Hid Hundreds of Pictures of Women, Abuse During Massages, and a Rape Allegation” at Christianity Today.

  • Read “Investigation Finds Ravi Zacharias Reportedly Raped a Massage Therapist; Sexually Molested Others” at Roys Report.

Read “Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey: If you need stimulus check, you are ‘screwed’” at Religion News Service.

Read ‘Survey: More than a quarter of white evangelicals believe core QAnon conspiracy theory” at Religion News Service.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Immigrants, activists worry Biden won’t end Trump barriers” at KTAR.

Read “'We cannot tolerate extremist behavior': Admiral condemns recent racist incidents in Navy” at NBC News.

Read “Inside Trump and Barr’s Last-Minute Killing Spree” at Pro Publica. “Private executioners paid in cash. Middle-of-the-night killings. False or incomplete justifications. ProPublica obtained court records showing how the outgoing administration is using its final days to execute the most federal prisoners since World War II.”

Read “Violent attacks on elderly Asian Americans in Bay Area leaves community members 'traumatized'“ at ABC News. “A community leader say there have been at least 20 attacks.”

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “FBI Raids Home Of Rachel Powell, Mercer County Mother Of 8 Suspected In Capitol Attack” Pittsburgh CBS Local.

Read “The Barbarians at the Gate: The Sack of Rome and the Attack on the U.S. Capitol” at The Reveal. “The problems with imagining who the barbarians are in the U.S. today.”

Read “The majority of the people arrested for Capitol riot had a history of financial trouble” at Washington Post.

Read “Sen. Shirkey baselessly claims U.S. Capitol riot was 'staged' by Trump haters, recording shows” at Metro Times.

Read “She Lived Through the Capitol Attack. Now This GOP Staffer Is Calling Out Her Friends’ Conspiracies” at Vice. “Leslie Shedd used to politely change the topic when friends would float fringe right-wing conspiracy theories. Not anymore.”

Read “Texas woman charged in Capitol riot says she bought into Trump 'lie': 'I regret everything'“ at The Hill.

Read “Five people associated with Proud Boys arrested for Capitol riot on conspiracy charges” at CNN.

Read “Military officials were unaware of potential danger to Pence's 'nuclear football' during Capitol riot” at CNN.

Read “FBI arrests two Kentucky men associated with the 'Boogaloo Bois'“ at The Hill.

Read “Mark Finchem Planned Jan. 6 D.C. Visit With Right-Wing Activist Ali Alexander” at Phoenix New Times.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Tucker Carlson Bizarrely Ties The Capitol Riots To George Floyd’s Death” at Okay Player.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Health care workers replaced Denver cops in handling hundreds of mental health and substance abuse cases — and officials say it saved lives” at CBS News.

Read “Is This Beverly Hills Cop Playing Sublime’s ‘Santeria’ to Avoid Being Live-Streamed?” at Vice. “Police officers in Beverly Hills have been playing music while being filmed, seemingly in an effort to trigger Instagram’s copyright filters.”

Read “How ABC15 Linked A Phoenix Police 'Challenge Coin' To Neo-Nazism” at KJZZ.

Read “Charges dismissed against Buffalo cops who shoved elderly protester” at New York Post.

Read “The Staten Island Files: Explore Hundreds of Previously Secret NYPD Misconduct Findings” at Gothamist.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings



Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “This Health Advocate Is Calling on Rich Countries to Stop Hoarding COVID-19 Vaccines” at Global Citizen.

Read “Fully vaccinated people don't need to quarantine if exposed to Covid” at NBC News.

Read “Fauci says it will be “open season” for COVID-19 vaccine by April” at Salon.

Read “Biden Announces Deal For 200 Million More COVID-19 Vaccines” at NPR.

Read “Why Are Chicago’s Playgrounds Still Closed?” at WBEZ.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Who Really Created the Marvel Universe?” at The New Yorker. “Stan Lee presided over a world of superheroes, but his collaborators and readers sustained his vision—and his characters outlasted it.”

Read “Hacker Changed Chemical Level in Florida Water Plant” at Bloomberg.

Read “Dallas Mavericks cease playing national anthem before games at Mark Cuban’s direction” at The Athletic.

  • Read “The Dallas Mavericks Stopped Playing the National Anthem Before Games and No One Noticed” at Okay Player.

Read “Twitter considering subscription fees to ensure 'revenue durability'“ at The Hill.

Read “How the Measles Vaccine Went From No Big Deal to Anti-Vaxxer Obsession” at Slate.

Read “When Republicans Attack 'Cancel Culture,' What Does It Mean?” at NPR.

Read “Portia De Rossi Says Ellen DeGeneres Helped Her Realize Being Gay Was OK” at Huff Post.

Read “Looking to avert evictions, L.A. seeks $46 million to buy Chinatown apartment building” at Los Angeles Times.

Read ‘Donald Trump’s Twitter Ban Is Permanent, CFO Confirms” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Twitter permanently bans Project Veritas account” at CNN.

Read “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been banned from Instagram” at CNN.

Read “After the ballots are counted: Conspiracies, political violence, and American exceptionalism” at American Survey Center. “Findings from the January 2021 American Perspectives Survey.”

Read “Thread Man” by Liz Lenz. “Seth Abramson’s viral meta-journalism unreality.”

Read “Some Parkland Survivors Are Not Amused By David Hogg's Pillow Venture” at Jezebel.

Internationalities:

Read “Haitian Gov’t Claims It Halted a Coup Amid Dispute over Jovenel Moïse’s Presidency, Ongoing Protests” at Democracy Now.

Read “Saudi Activist Who Led Campaign To Legalize Driving For Women Is Released From Jail” at NPR.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “American Democracy Isn't Doing So Hot” at Vice. “Almost half of Americans say U.S. democracy isn't functioning very well.”

Read “GOP Sen. Richard Shelby announces he won't seek re-election in 2022” at NBC News. “Shelby, 86, is now the fourth Republican senator to announce plans to retire at the end of the current Congress.”

Read ‘House Oversight chair demands Parler financing information” at The Hill.

Read “Biden DOJ to continue to seek Assange extradition” at The Hill.

Read “The Predator in the Lincoln Project. “Weaver used his power to get jobs for young men he allegedly harassed. His colleagues were warned” at New York Magazine.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trickle down Trumpism: How Pennsylvania's Republican Party radicalized against democracy” at Salon.

Read “Georgia Prosecutors Open Criminal Investigation of Trump Phone Call” at New York Times.

Read “Trump’s political operation paid more than $3.5 million to Jan. 6 organizers” at Open Secrets.

Read ‘One Of Trump’s Impeachment Lawyers Once Sued Him Over Baseless Ballot ‘Fraud’ Claims” at Huff Post.

Read “Trump's attack on Gov. Doug Ducey, Maricopa County election protest cited in impeachment trial” at AZ Central.

Read “As riot raged at Capitol, Trump tried to call senators to overturn election” at CNN.

Read ‘A Million-Dollar Pardon Offer at the Trump Hotel” at Atlantic. “Corey Lewandowski allegedly wanted a hefty fee in exchange for helping a government whistleblower win a pardon from the former president.”

Music-Related News and Such:

Read ‘Inside Sun Ra’s 1971 trip to Egypt” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “KISS’ Gene Simmons says young fans are “culprits” for the death of rock: “You killed the thing that you love” at NME. “He also blamed streaming and digital downloads.”

Read “Robbie Robertson on Reworking the Band’s ‘Stage Fright’: ‘This Is What It’s Supposed to Be’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Wolf Alice Singer Ellie Rowsell Says Marilyn Manson Filmed Up Her Skirt” at Consequence of Sound.

  • Read “Marilyn Manson’s streaming figures for his back catalogue rise despite abuse allegations” at NME.

  • Read “Corey Feldman Has Accused His Former Band Members Of Being Satanists Working With Marilyn Manson Since 2018” at Celebrity Insider.

  • Read “Marilyn Manson Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Minors In Florida, Calls For An FBI Investigation Under Way” at Celebrity Insider.

Read “Danielson’s Daniel Smith Wrote These Fake Christian Hair Metal Songs For The New Movie Electric Jesus” at Stereogum.

Read “Goodbye, Dolly” at The Baffler. “Mythmaking in Dolly Parton’s America.”

Read “Kill Rock Stars Is Turning 30. No One Is More Surprised Than Founder Slim Moon” at Williamette Week.

Read “Celebrities Join Push To ‘Free’ Britney Spears After New Documentary Airs” at Huff Post.

  • Read “Court blocks Britney Spears' dad from re-taking full control of her estate” at AV Club.

Read “Morgan Wallen's record sales skyrocket after racial slur controversy” at CNN.

  • Read “Jason Isbell Donating Royalties From Morgan Wallen’s Version of “Cover Me Up” to the NAACP” at Pitchfork.

  • Read Morgan Wallen: Country star says fans shouldn't defend his use of racist language” at ABC News.

Listen to “JPR Live Session: H.C. McEntire” at Jefferson Public Radio.

Read “Breaking Down Bruce Springsteen’s Uncharacteristic Super Bowl Commercial” at Pitchfork. “The rock icon’s first-ever ad appearance is filled with the sorts of platitudes he has transcended in the past.” (EDITOR’S NOTE: Let’s not forget the Christian Nationalism imagery.)

  • Read “Bruce Springsteen faces drunken driving charge in New Jersey” at 12 News.

  • Read “Bruce Springsteen’s Jeep Ad Pulled From YouTube After Report of DWI Arrest” at Pitchfork.

  • Read “Bruce Springsteen busted for DWI after one shot of tequila” at New York Post.

Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for “Black Women Who Shaped Rock & Roll".

Read “Did Van Halen Have a Fourth Singer? Mitch Malloy Tells His Story” at Rolling Stone. “Mitch Malloy tells all about his (very brief) time with Van Halen, after Sammy Hagar and before Gary Cherone.”

Read “The Prodigy to Receive Full-Length Documentary Treatment” at Spin.

Read “Shaun Ryder says his home is still being invaded by aliens” at NME. “It comes after the Black Grape frontman previously claimed to have been visited by a "spider" spaceship.”

Read “Saint Disruption: John Medeski & Jeff Firewalker Schmitt Travel From the Jungle to the Street” at American Songwriter.

Read “Mark Cuban Wants A Piece Of The Growing Audio Business.” at Inside Radio.

Read “Phoebe Bridgers Reflects on ‘Kyoto’ and its impact: “Forgiveness Is A Gift To Yourself” at MTV.

  • Read “Phoebe Bridgers Calls SNL Guitar-Smashing ‘a Bucket List Thing’ as Boomers Continue to Fume” at Spin.

Read “Man builds guitar out of his dead uncle’s skeleton, uses it to play black metal” at Guitar World.

Read “Someone collected 1.5 hours of Slayer’s ’80s stage banter” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Reaches Diamond Status” at Consequence of Sound. “23 years after its release, the iconic LP has has surpassed 10,000,000 units sold.”

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Browse The Guardian’s picks for “52 perfect comfort films – to watch again and again.”

Read “Why Fox News canceled Lou Dobbs” at MSN. “Fox News' official reason for canceling Lou Dobbs' show -- a post-election programing adjustment -- doesn't quite add up.”

Read “'Buffy' star Charisma Carpenter accuses Joss Whedon of abusive behavior” at The Hill.

  • Read “Sarah Michelle Gellar, More ‘Buffy’ Actors Respond to Joss Whedon Allegations: ‘I Stand With All Survivors of Abuse’ at Variety.

Read ‘Netflix's Cecil Hotel Doc Attempts to Find Out What Happened to Elisa Lam” at Vice. “Infamous CCTV footage of her behaving bizarrely caught the attention of online sleuths who thought it was proof of paranormal activity. The reality is much more grim.”

Read “You Literally Can't Believe The Facts Tucker Carlson Tells You. So Say Fox's Lawyers” at NPR.

Read “Lucasfilm Calls Gina Carano Social Media Posts “Abhorrent”; Actress No Longer Employed By ‘Mandalorian’ Studio” at Deadline.

Read “Tucker Carlson claims George Floyd died of a drug overdose — and links it to Trump's impeachment” at Salon.

Books/Reading/Authors



Design/Artsy Things:



Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “The world's first 3D printed lab-grown rib-eye steak is unveiled” at The Hill. ““It incorporates muscle and fat similar to its slaughtered counterpart,” Aleph Farms said.”

Read “Hallucinatory 'voices' shaped by local culture, Stanford anthropologist says” at Stanford News. “Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann found that voice-hearing experiences of people with serious psychotic disorders are shaped by local culture – in the United States, the voices are harsh and threatening; in Africa and India, they are more benign and playful. This may have clinical implications for how to treat people with schizophrenia, she suggests.”

Food Cultures:



Misc. Oddities:



Local:

Read “Inside the case: Watch testimony behind the Phoenix protest gang charges” at ABC 15.

Read “Arizona Republicans Threaten to Arrest GOP Officials If They Don't Turn Over Ballots for Another Recount” at Second Nexus.

Read “Arizona legislators to hear first in series of 'anti-protest' bills Wednesday” at 12 News.

Read “Arizona Senate OKs asking voters to curb governor's emergency powers” at Tucson.com.

The Weekly Town Crier (02/05/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (02/05/21).


We’ll Miss You:

Read “Sophie, Grammy-nominated artist, dies aged 34” at CNN.

Read “People Under The Stairs Co-Founder, Double K, Dead at 43” at Okay Player.

Read “Dustin Diamond: Saved by the Bell star dies aged 44” at BBC.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Christianity on Display at Capitol Riot Sparks New Debate” at Roys Report. 

Read “Archbishop Justin Welby prays 'in tongues' every day” at BBC.

Read “Black clergy offer churches as COVID-19 vaccination sites, roll up their sleeves” at Religion News Service.

Read “Discerning the Difference Between Christian Nationalism and Christian Patriotism” by David French.

Read “How Jesus became white — and why it’s time to cancel that” at Religion News Service.

Read “Meet the Republican Congressman Who Says His Faith Led Him to Vote for Impeachment” at Christianity Today.

Read “Racist letter sent to Black pastor condemned as ‘vile, sick and disgusting’” at Baptist Press.

Read “QAnon Congresswoman Demanded Muslim Lawmakers Retake Oaths On Bible Instead Of Quran In Resurfaced Video” at Comic Sands.

Read “ERLC-focused task force releases report” at Baptist Press.

Read “Missouri church leaders call for Hawley's resignation over election claims” at The Hill.

Read “Critical Race Theory Isn’t a Threat for Presbyterians” at Mere Orthodoxy.

Read “SBC report calls never-Trumper Russell Moore’s agency a ‘significant distraction’” at Religion News Service.

Read ‘She was stunned by Biden's inauguration. How this South Carolina mom escaped QAnon” at CNN.

  • Read “Why QAnon Survives After Trump” at NPR.

Read “The Prosperous Lifestyle of America’s Anti-Prosperity Gospel Preacher” at Roys Report.

Read “Biden, former presidents urge Americans to forgive and unite at National Prayer Breakfast” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “The National Prayer Breakfast Isn’t the Only Time Politicians Pray Together” at Christianity Today. “The Christian calls for unity by President Biden and members of Congress continue at weekly bipartisan gatherings.”

Read “Black History Month: 20 Stories Christians Should Know” at Christianity Today.

Read “Secular groups praise Biden’s agenda but express concerns about religious rhetoric” at Religion News Service.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “How did Nazi references get on Alaska license plates?” at Alaska Public Media.

Read “Black patients were losing limbs at triple the rate of others” a Pro Publica.

Read “Louisiana cemetery declines to bury black deputy sheriff due to 'whites only' policy” at The Hill.

Read ‘ICE Guards “Systematically” Sexually Assault Detainees in an El Paso Detention Center, Lawyers Say” at Pro Publica.

Read “Biden Is Reversing Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Acts. Will He Repair Harm from Deportations Under Obama?” at Democracy Now.

Read “House Democrat demands U.S. military screen troops' social media for links to extremist groups” at NBC News.

Read “Evan Rachel Wood makes abuse allegations against musician Marilyn Manson” at Slate.

  • Read “Tracing Marilyn Manson’s Blurred Lines Between Shock Rock and Alleged Abuse” at Pitchfork.

  • Read “Phoebe Bridgers Recalls “Horrible” Experience in Marilyn Manson’s House” at Consequence of Sound. “The label knew, management knew, the band knew"

Read “Putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 Bill Is Not a Sign of Progress. It's a Sign of Disrespect” at Time.

Read “'A Sledgehammer To The War On Drugs': Oregon Decriminalizes Illegal Drugs” at WBUR.

Read “GOP senator joins rally to oppose stand your ground legislation” at Arkansas Times.

Read “Deported with their children separated, mothers hope to be reunited years later” at PBS News Hour.

Read “House Oversight leaders request Secret Service briefing amid domestic violence concerns” at The Hill.

Read “Biden to sign memo on protecting LGBTQ rights worldwide” at The Hill.

Read “U.S. military vows to cleanse armed forces of extremists and white supremacists” at Boing Boing.

Read “Movie at the Ellipse: A Study in Fascist Propaganda” at Just Security.

Read “The Charleston loophole": Purchases by people barred from buying guns skyrocketed in 2020” at CBS News.

Read “Gaming Sites Are Still Letting Streamers Profit From Hate” at Wired. “WIRED has found dozens of far-right and white supremacist figures monetizing their livestreams through “donation management services” Streamlabs and StreamElements.”

Read “Fox News sued by Smartmatic for $2.7 billion over rigged election claims” at NBC News.

Read “How a Hacker's Mom Broke Into a Prison—and the Warden's Computer” at Wired.

Read “What Biden can learn from Obama’s immigration mistakes” at Vox.

Read “Ex-Attorney General Sessions needs to answer questions on zero tolerance, says DOJ inspector general” at NBC News.

Read “Judge blocks Texas effort to remove Planned Parenthood from Medicaid” at The Hill.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Pipe bombs found near Capitol on January 6 were placed the night before, FBI says” at CNN.

Read “Man in Pelosi’s office kept in jail as Capitol riot arrests go on” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Stop the Steal” Organizer Called for “Execution” of Trump’s Foes” at Mother Jones.

Read “Tracking the Oath Keepers Who Attacked the Capitol” at New York Times.

Read “Video Investigation: Proud Boys Were Key Instigators in Capitol Riot” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “GOP congressman deletes tweet saying he met with 'Stop the Steal' and told them to 'keep fighting'“ at Raw Story.

Read “Jacob Chansley: QAnon ‘Shaman’ offers to testify against Donald Trump” at Independent.

  • Read “'QAnon Shaman' from Capitol riot hasn't eaten in a week due to lack of organic food in jail, lawyer says” at The Hill.

Read “One of Two Proud Boys Charged With Conspiracy in Capitol Riots Had Bomb-Making Manuals” at Slate.

Read “Woman who said she wanted to shoot Pelosi during Capitol riot arrested” at NBC News.

Read “Disproportionate number of current and former military personnel arrested in Capitol attack, CNN analysis shows” at CNN.

  • Read “The Boogaloo Bois Have Guns, Criminal Records and Military Training. Now They Want to Overthrow the Government” at Pro Publica. “ProPublica and FRONTLINE have identified more than twenty members with ties to the armed forces.”

Read “They stormed the Capitol to overturn the results of an election they didn't vote in” at CNN.

Read “Police arrest man who wore jacket with company name, number during Capitol riot” at The Hill.

Read “Capitol riot suspect asks court's permission to vacation in Mexico” at USA Today.

Read “The Capitol Rioters Aren’t Like Other Extremists” at The Atlantic. “We analyzed 193 people arrested in connection with the January 6 riot—and found a new kind of American radicalism.”

Read “Prosecutors seek new arrest warrant for Kyle Rittenhouse, $200,000 increase to his bail” at The Hill.

Read “Militia alliance in Georgia signals new phase for extremist paramilitaries” at AJC.

This Week In Protest-Related News:



This Week With The Police:

Read “UW Madison Police chief bans use of 'thin blue line' imagery” at The Hill.

Read “Police pepper spray 9-year-old girl in Rochester, N.Y.” at NBC News.

Read “Former police officer Adam Coy charged with murder in death of Andre Hill” at ABC News.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “The Illusion of School Choice” at Men Yell At Me. “It’s not a free market if it’s based on discrimination.”

Read “Fauci backs CDC's school reopening plan: 'We need to try and get the children back to school'“ at NBC News.

Read “What impact is ‘the COVID slide’ having on students?” at PBS News Hour.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read ‘Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Is 66% Effective In Preventing Moderate To Severe COVID-19” at NPR.

  • Read “Why Even a 66 Percent Effective Vaccine Is Such Good News” at Slate. “The exact efficacy might not matter as much as the increased ease of distribution.”

Read “Racism and COVID-19: Why are Black Americans getting vaccinated at much lower rates?” at The Hill.

Read “Legislators go after governors to rein in COVID-19 powers” at The Hill.

Read “New virus cases at U.S. nursing homes have fallen steadily since vaccination began” at New York Times.

Read “Biden coronavirus adviser says we 'have to call an audible' on vaccine distribution” at The Hill.

Read “Anti-vaccine protest briefly shuts down Dodger Stadium vaccination site” at NBC News.

Read “What went wrong with America’s $44 million vaccine data system?” at Technology Review. “The CDC ordered software that was meant to manage the vaccine rollout. Instead, it has been plagued by problems and abandoned by most states.”

Read “Covid vaccines: Rollout in disarray in U.S. and abroad” at NBC News.

Read “The Pandemic Has Erased Entire Categories of Friendship” at Atlantic. “There’s a reason you miss the people you didn’t even know that well.”

Read “Anti-Vaxxers Won’t Stop Harassing Nurse They’re Convinced Is Dead” at Daily Beast.

Read “FBI: Pharmacist who sought to spoil vaccines also believes Earth is flat” at The Hill.

Read “White House awards $230M for over-the-counter, rapid COVID-19 tests” at The Hill.

Read “Line cooks are at the highest risk of dying from COVID, says UCSF study” at SF Gate.

Read “81-person French orgy broken up for violating COVID-19 curfew” at New York Post.

Read “Exclusive: indigenous Americans dying from Covid at twice the rate of white Americans” at The Guardian.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Grape-Nuts, Supermarket Mainstay, Is No Longer So Easy to Find” at New York Times.

Read “No tuna in Subway's tuna sandwiches and wraps, lawsuit claims” at CBS News.

Read ‘Melania Trump 'told move fast and divorce Donald while he still has millions'“ at Daly Record.

Read “The Black Lives Matter Movement Could Win The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize” at Okay Player.

Read “The Dyatlov Pass incident, one of the most famous missing hiker mysteries, may have just been solved” at Slate.

Read “CNN President to Exit Cable Channel at End of 2021” at Wall Street Journal.

Browse “The LSD Archive at The Institute of Illegal Images” at Flashback.

Read “Yet another study says Uber and Lyft are worse for traffic congestion” at CNet.

Read “Gaming the System” at Slate. “The GameStop surge was just one of the ways Americans have renewed their love of gamblng.”

Read “New Age Jocks: Superstar Athletes Are Getting Very Mystical” at GQ.

Read “How Rob Lowe Embraced Sobriety to Become the Person He Always Wanted to Be” at Variety.

Read “David Hogg to launch pillow company to compete with MyPillow” at The Hill.

Internationalities:

Read “30 Stunning Photographs Show Everyday Life in Glasgow in 1980” at The Mind Circle.

Read “Thousands detained in Russia amid rallies for Alexey Navalny” at CNN.

Read “Kazakhstan's 'Qazaq-pop' boy band Ninety One challenges gender norms” at Public Radio International.

Read “Myanmar’s military stages coup d’etat: Live news” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Myanmar Coup: With Aung San Suu Kyi Detained, Military Takes Over Government” at NPR.

Read “Mexican Police Accused of Slaying Over a Dozen Guatemalan Migrants” at Vice.

Read “Israel and Kosovo Establish Diplomatic Ties, Kosovo to Open Embassy in Jerusalem” at Democracy Now.

Read “New Uighur abuse claims spark call for UN investigation” at The Hill.

Read “China promotes education drive to make boys more 'manly'“ at BBC.

Read “Al Qaeda leader in Yemen in custody, U.N. confirms” at NBC News.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Ousted Fox News editor: Reaction to Trump's loss a result of 'informational malnourishment'“ at The Hill.

Read “Republicans Can’t Believe Democrats Don’t Want To Work With Them Just Because Of The Guns And The Death Threats And The Crackpot Conspiracy Theories” at Vanity Fair. “What gives, honestly? Who wouldn’t want to work alongside such well-adjusted, not at all dangerous people?”

Read “Republican governor: I would not vote for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene” at The Hill.

Read “Portman says Republican leadership 'ought to stand up' against Greene's comments” at The Hill.

Read “Parkland victim's mother says she spoke with Marjorie Taylor Greene about school shooting conspiracies” at NBC News. “Republicans politicians were pressed about how the party should respond to Greene, who faces calls for expulsion from Congress.”

Read “On the Trail: GOP divided over growing anti-democratic drift in party” at The Hill.

Read “Republicans are overwhelmingly sticking with Trump, yet again” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Biden Should Defend the Right to Call for a Boycott” at Human Rights Watch.

Read “With 28 Executive Orders Signed, President Biden Is Off To A Record Start” at NPR.

Read “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she's a survivor of sexual assault while describing trauma of Capitol insurrection” at CNN.

  • Read “What a picture of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a bikini tells us about the disturbing future of AI” at The Guardian.

Read “No Biden family members will have a role in government or foreign policy, President Biden says” at Market Watch.

Read “Both Parties Envision a Short Senate Impeachment Trial for Trump” at Bloomberg.

Read “Mitt Romney has a plan to give parents up to $15,000 a year” at Vox.

Read “Senate Agrees to Power-Sharing Deal That Leaves Democrats in Control of Committees” at Democracy Now.

Read “Sanders Taps Budget-Rules Expert to Push Bill: Stimulus Update” at Bloomberg.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “GOP ignored its early fears about Marjorie Taylor Greene” at Axios.

  • Read “McConnell says Taylor Greene's embrace of conspiracy theories a 'cancer' to GOP, country” at The Hill.

  • Read “Greene vows to 'never back down' in face of criticism over past remarks” at The Hill.”

  • Read “'I'm here to do a job': Cori Bush recounts how Marjorie Taylor Greene berated her” at at MSNBC.

  • Read “Democrats to Oust Marjorie Taylor Greene From Committees If GOP Won’t” at Bloomberg.

  • Read “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — and her conspiracy theories — won't get expelled from Congress” at MSNBC.

  • Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Was a Moderator of a Facebook Group Featuring Death Threats and Racist Memes” at Mother Jones.

  • Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She Regrets QAnon Comments” at Wall Street Journal. “Freshman Republican lawmaker is set to be removed from committees in House vote.”

  • Read “How Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Became a Leadership Test for Kevin McCarthy” at Time.

  • Read “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Has Been Kicked Off Her Committees by the Democratic-Led House” at Time.

Read “Jack Posobiec Central in Spreading Russian Intelligence-Led #MacronLeaks Hack” at Southern Poverty Law Center.

Read “Republican Ties to Extremist Groups Are Under Scrutiny” at New York Times.

Read “Five of Trump's impeachment defense attorneys leave team less than two weeks before trial” at CNN.

Read “Arizona GOP rep introduces bill to give Legislature power to throw out election results” at MSNBC.

Read “Law Firm Ad Touting Biden Brother’s Political Connections Raises Ethics Questions” at Huff Post.

Read “Kelli Ward demanded an audit of a local GOP leadership election before refusing one of her election” at AZ Mirror.

  • Read “Uh-oh. Now Kelli Ward's own peeps are calling out her election audit hypocrisy” at AZ Central.

Read “Trump's Senate impeachment conviction is unlikely. Voters will have to stop him (again).” at MSNBC.

Read “GOP Rep. Nancy Mace said that Trump 'put all of our lives at risk' during the Capitol riots, but rejected impeachment, calling the process 'rushed'“ at Business Insider.

Read “After Trump Failed to Overturn 2020 Election, Republicans Are Trying to Steal the Next One” at Mother Jones. “This is the most concerted effort to roll back voting rights in decades.”


Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Beastie Boys’ Mike D Auctioning Memorabilia for Charity” at Pitchfork.

Read “Coachella postponed for the third time in twelve months” at NME. “Organisers are yet to announce new dates for the Californian festival.”

Read “Foo Fighters Unveil New Sneaker Collaboration With Vans” at Rolling Stone.

Read ‘NuMetal is the reason ‘90s alternative music died out. Agree? Disagree?” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Read “Jimmy Page Tells the Story of “Kashmir”” at Open Culture.

Read “Coachella Is Canceled Again” at New York Times.

Read “Neil Young announces release of “lost” album ‘Johnny’s Island’” at NME.

Read ‘Tony Bennett has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease” at NME.

Listen to “A Manifesto For Better Song Lyrics” at KQED.

Read “The Obsessive Beat-Making of Madlib” at New Yorker.

Read “The tortured, touching love saga of Cicely Tyson and Miles Davis” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Record by near-unknown producer sells for $41,000 to become most expensive on Discogs” at The Guardian.

Read “This 1969 Music Fest Has Been Called ‘Black Woodstock.’ Why Doesn’t Anyone Remember?” at Rolling Stone. “The Harlem Cultural Festival attracted everyone from Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone to Jesse Jackson and Marcus Garvey Jr., but quickly faded into obscurity. Fifty years later, a rediscovery is finally underway.”

Read “Morgan Wallen Suspended by Label, Removed from Radio After Using Racial Slur in Video” at Paste.

  • Read “Morgan Wallen Is Exactly What Country Music Wanted … Now What?” at Vulture.

Read “The Band Shares Previously-Unreleased “The Weight” From Royal Albert Hall, 1971” at Live for Live Music.

Read “The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson & Beatles Producer George Martin Break Down “God Only Knows,” the “Greatest Song Ever Written” at Open Culture.

Read “Jane Birkin On Grief, Jealousy, And Her Most Personal Album Ever” at Stereogum.

Read “Artists like me are being censored in Germany – because we support Palestinian rights” by Brian Eno at The Guardian.

Read “Alice Cooper Celebrates His Birthday With New Single ‘Social Debris’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “FOCUS: Trouble In Mind Records” at Ears To Feed.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Vintage Movies: “Grosse Pointe Blanke” at Magnet Magazine.

Read “The Best Result of the Streaming Boom? America Finally Loves Foreign-Language TV” The Best Result of the Streaming Boom? America Finally Loves Foreign-Language TV” at Time.

Read “A ‘Black Panther’-Inspired Show Is Coming To Disney Because It’s Wakanda Forever” at Huff Post.

Read “Questlove’s Summer of Soul Documentary Wins Sundance 2021 Grand Jury Prize” at Pitchfork.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “It Takes A Village To Keep A Book In Print: A Chat With The Collins Crime Club” at Crime Reads.

Read “Amanda Gorman — And Poetry — Will Be Part Of Super Bowl LV” at NPR.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Russian Artist Brings Baba Yaga Lego Set to Life” at Moscow Times.

Read “The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Puts Online 90,000 Works of Modern Art” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Why you're more likely to cry on an airplane” at Popular Science.

Read ‘Psychedelics as Antidepressants” at Scientific American.”The treatments of the future may arise from a long-stigmatized class of drugs.”

Read “U.S. Navy Has Patents on Tech It Says Will ‘Engineer the Fabric of Reality’” at Vice. “he U.S. Navy's “UFO patents” sound like they've been ripped from a science fiction novel.”

Food Cultures:



Misc. Oddities:

See “Wooden Quilt Doors” at Atlas Obscura. “An artist weaves "wooden quilts" with scraps salvaged from his Katrina-damaged home in Tremé.”

Local:

Read “Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey Sees a ‘Fever’ in the State GOP. Others See the Future” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Phoenix's FilmBar Adapting To Pandemic Pressures With New Outdoor Location” at KJZZ.

Read “Kelli Ward rejects request for Arizona GOP race audit” at The Hill.

Read “Heat killed a record number of people in Arizona last year, 'a staggering increase'“ at AZ Central.

Read ‘State Farm Stadium passes 100K vaccinations as Phoenix Muni opens” at KTAR.

Read “School voucher expansion is back despite 1.5 million Arizona voters who already said no” at AZ Central.

Read “Politically Charged: Officials create ‘fictional’ gang to punish Phoenix protesters” at ABC 15.

The Weekly Town Crier (01/29/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/29/21)


We’ll Miss You:

Read “Hank Aaron, Home Run King Who Defied Racism, Dies at 86” at New York Times.

Read “Larry King, legendary talk show host, dies at 87” at CNN.

Read “Gregory Sierra, ‘Sanford and Son’ and ‘Barney Miller’ actor, dies at 83” at Wish TV.

Read “Cicely Tyson, an Actress Who Shattered Stereotypes, Dies at 96” at New York Times.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “The Disgraced Preacher and the Songwriter” at The Atlantic. “The man who wrote one of the most popular worship songs is linked to the leader of an organization hit with allegations of sexual abuse.”

Read “Five myths about evangelicals” at Washington Post. “They aren’t all conservative.”

Read “COVID-Spreading Preacher: Joe Biden is Promoting an “Anti-Christ Agenda”” at Patheos.

Read “Franklin Graham Defends Former Tennis Star Who Compares LGBTs To Hitler: She’s Quoting Biblical Truth” at Joe My God.

Read “SBC president JD Greear’s church launches inquiry into past actions of Bryan Loritts” at Religion News Service.

Read “SBC pastor calls Vice President Kamala Harris a ‘Jezebel’ two days after inauguration” at Baptist News (EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’ve ever wondered why I no longer affiliate with the SBC, you could start here).

Read “John MacArthur Returns to Pulpit after Apparent, Undisclosed Illness” at Roys Report.

Read “Biden’s first 100 days: What’s not for evangelicals to like?” at Religion News Service.

Read “Jesus Plus Masculinity for America’s Sake: Replying to “Jesus and John Wayne”” at Mere Orthodoxy.

Read “A group of Catholic bishops issues statement condemning bullying of LGBTQ youth” at Religion News Service.

Read “Some Black Southern Baptists Feel Shut Out by White Leaders” at U.S. News.

Read “A Baptist, a Catholic, and a Neo-Pagan Shaman Walk Into a Bar...” by Diana Butler Bass.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read ‘Texas Supreme Court Silently Denies Alex Jones All Forms of Relief: Sandy Hook Families and Others Can Now Sue Conspiracy Theorist and InfoWars into the Ground” at Law and Crime.

Read ‘Supreme Court wipes out lower court rulings in Texas abortion battle” at NBC News. “The governor ordered a halt to nonessential medical procedures last year, which the attorney general then said applied to "any type of abortions."

Read “When White Extremism Seeps Into The Mainstream” at NPR.

Read “Biden lifting Trump's transgender military ban” at The Hill.

Read “Judge: Kenosha shooter can’t associate with supremacists” at Associated Press.

Read “Fatal Police Shootings Of Unarmed Black People Reveal Troubling Patterns” at NPR.

Read “States eye allowing concealed carry of guns without a permit” at Associated Press.

Read “It’s about freedom from fear’: Deportations loom despite Biden executive order” at MSNBC.

Read “Biden to order DOJ to end private prison contracts as part of racial equity push” at CNBC.

Read “In major new move, Disney to erase 'negative depictions of native peoples' from famous 'Jungle Cruise' ride” at The Hill.

Read “Lawmakers in 14 states have proposed anti-LGBTQ bills, many of which target trans youth” at CNN.

Read “DHS issues warning on 'violent domestic extremists'“ at PRI.

Read “Leader of Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, Was a Government Informer” at Democracy Now.

Read “South Carolina Senate votes to outlaw most abortions in state” at The Hill.

Read “Poland to implement near-total ban on abortion imminently” at The Guardian.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “A Total Failure’: The Proud Boys Now Mock Trump” at New York Times.

Read “U.S. files conspiracy charge against Oath Keeper” at Washington Post.

Read “Supporters’ words may haunt Trump at impeachment trial at Associated Press. “The words of Trump’s supporters who are accused of participating in the deadly U.S. Capitol riot may end up being used against him in his Senate impeachment trial. At least five supporters facing federal charges claim they were taking orders from him.”

Read “Capitol rioter charged with threatening to 'assassinate' Rep. Ocasio-Cortez” at CNN.

Read “Calls grow for 9/11-style panel to probe Capitol attack” at The Hill.

Read “Strange costumes of Capitol rioters echo the early days of the Ku Klux Klan - before the white sheets” at The Conversation.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “AZ Board Of Education Sees Dramatic Increase In Discipline Cases Against Educators” at KJZZ.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “A Vaccine Road Trip And what else you need to know today” at New York Times.

Read “Undercounting of Covid-19 deaths is greatest in pro-Trump areas, analysis shows” at Stat News.

Read “Cactus League asks the MLB to delay the start of spring training due to COVID-19” at AZ Family.

Read “California Lifts State Stay-at-Home Order as Virus Spread Slows” at Variety.

Read “Charges still stand against pastor Tony Spell for violating COVID-19 crowd limits” at WJTV.

Read “South Carolina detects first US cases of coronavirus strain first seen in South Africa” at CNN.

Read “America's botched vaccine rollout puts its broken health care system on full display” at MSNBC.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Microsoft Files Patent to Create Chatbots That Imitate Dead People” at IGN.

Read “Fauci Refutes Biden Admin Claim that Trump Left ‘No Plan’ for Vaccine Distribution” at Yahoo.

Read Newsweek’s opinion piece: “Student Debt is a Curse Upon America's Future. Biden Must Wipe It Out—All Of It.”

Read “K-Pop Fans Who Hijacked ‘ImpeachBidenNow’ Hashtag May Have Violated Twitter Rules” at Variety.

Read “A look at Michelle Wolf’s most “controversial” WHCD jokes, one year later” at Fast Company.

Read “I Think My Gmail Has Crashed”: The Teacher Who Made Bernie Sanders’ Mittens on Watching Them Go Viral” at Slate.

Read “Mar-a-Lago is a 'sad place' since Trump moved in as members begin quitting” at Raw Story.

Read “Twitter launches 'Birdwatch' community forum to combat misinformation” at CNET.

Read “Budweiser to skip Super Bowl ads, donate to coronavirus vaccination awareness instead” at The Hill.

Read “Robinhood faces backlash from both parties for limiting trades” at The Hill.

Read “Toxic ‘Black Mayonnaise’ Seeps Into Gowanus Bay After Barge Accident” at New York Times.

Read “Healing the Imagination: Art Lessons from James Baldwin” at Image Journal.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Dem’s New Bill Aims to Bar QAnon Followers From Security Clearances” at Daily Beast.

Read “Biden replaces controversial White House physician” at CNN.

Read “GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert and husband racked up arrests in home district” a New York Post.

Read “Leahy, not Roberts, to preside over impeachment trial” at The Hill.

Read “Biden wants to unite America. Republicans have a different idea of what that means.” at NBC News. “Republican pleas for unity focus on urging Biden not to take actions that upset their voters. But that's incompatible with the new president's agenda.”

Read “Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Run for Arkansas Governor” at New York Times.

Read “Sen. Sinema Opposes Eliminating the Filibuster, ‘Not Open to Changing Her Mind’” at National Review.

Read “Democrats reintroduce $15 minimum wage bill” at The Hill.

Read “McConnell Relents On Senate Filibuster Stalemate” at NPR.

Read “Senate committee advances Biden's DHS pick despite Republican pushback” at The Hill.

Read “Giuliani election witness who testified at Michigan hearing says she's running for state house seat” at The Hill.

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene indicated support for executing prominent Democrats in 2018 and 2019 before running for Congress” at CNN.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “The Ignominious Deceits of Congressman Cawthorn” at The Nation. “Representative Madison Cawthorn has misled the public about training for the Paralympics, just as he misrepresented his education and business history.”

Read “Kevin McCarthy: ‘Everybody Across This Country’ Is To Blame For Capitol Attack” at Huff Post.

Read “Sen. Tom Cotton campaigned on his "experience as an Army Ranger" — but he didn't have any” at Salon.

Read “Trump Reportedly Pressured DOJ to File Case in Supreme Court to Overturn Election” at Slate.

  • Read “Internal watchdog to investigate whether DOJ officials sought to interfere with 2020 election” at The Hill.

Read “Madison Cawthorn is trying to use ableist stereotypes to exploit America” at MSNBC.

Read “Resurfaced Videos Of QAnon Congresswoman Harassing Parkland Survivor David Hogg Spark Outrage” at Comic Sands.

  • Read “Reporter Tossed Out of Marjorie Taylor Greene's Town Hall by Cops for Trying to Ask Question” at Newsweek.

Read “GOP bill would allow lawmakers to override electoral votes” at Arizona Capitol Times.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read ‘Yasmin Williams puts a fresh spin on finger-style guitar” at Washington Post.

Read “What to Know About Music’s Copyright Gold Rush” at Pitchfork.

Read “The Art of Kinda Fittin’ In: ZZ Top Begins” at Tidal.

Read “Black musicians, led by Alicia Keys, ask Biden to create racial justice commission” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Lucinda Williams Looks Back on Every Album She’s Ever Made” at Spin.

Read “Venues Offer COVID-19 Vaccine Spaces and Assistance in Open Letter to Biden” at Pitchfork.

Read “Kris Kristofferson Retires from Stage and Screen” at No Depression.

Read “DistroKid Announces New “Upstream” Program to Share Streaming Data With Record Labels” at Pitchfork.

Read “‘Meaningless’ at 20: Jon Brion Looks Back on His Obscure Solo Masterpiece” at Rolling Stone.

Browse “Unlocked Recordings” at the Internet Archive. “Recordings made available under the Music Modernization Act. A reasonable search has been conducted to determine that these items are not commercially available.”

Read “Every Issue of Punk Planet Is Available on the Internet Archive” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Browse Time’s picks for “The 20 Best Anime Series to Watch on Netflix Right Now.”

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Rolling Stone seeks 'thought leaders' willing to pay $2,000 to write for them” at The Guardian.

Read “He dreamed of creating his own African superhero universe. Now it’s finally paying off.” at Washington Post.

Read “The old gods died” at Abraham Joseph (Substack).

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “This 392-Year-Old Bonsai Tree Survived the Hiroshima Atomic Blast & Still Flourishes Today: The Power of Resilience” at Open Culture.

Read “Harvard’s top astronomer says our solar system may be teeming with alien technology” at New Statesman.

Food Cultures:

Read “How Orange (the Fruit) Inspired Orange (the Color)” at Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “Nearly 4,000 Maricopa, Pima County Republicans Switched Parties Within 1 Week Of U.S. Capitol Insurrection” at KJZZ.

Read “For a local reporter in Arizona, Trump’s collapse in the state was a longer story going back years.” at Slate. “For a longtime local reporter in Arizona, Trump’s collapse in the state was several narratives finally colliding.”

Read “2 Arizona fugitives captured 5 days after prison escape” at KTAR.

The Weekly Town Crier (01/22/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/22/21)




We’ll Miss You:

Read “Phil Spector Dead at 81” at Pitchfork. “The producer, who was in prison for murder, reportedly died of “natural causes”.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Is Dave Ramsey’s empire the ‘best place to work in America’? Say no and you’re out” at Religion News Service. “For years, Dave Ramsey has boasted that his company is the best place to work in the country. COVID-19 and a failure by a high-profile leader put that to the test.”

  • Read ‘Full Ramsey Solutions Response” at Religion News Service. “We are horrible people," the financial advice and media company told RNS in a sarcastic email.”

Read ‘Insisting on Healing May be the Death of Us” at Red Letter Christians.

Read "Where Does the South End and Christianity Begin?” by David French. “Understanding the role of shame/honor culture in the roots of Christian rage.”

Read “The Mandalorian’ is an indictment of holy wars, and a celebration of pluralism” at Religion News Service. “Religion is a constant in the galaxy far, far away....”

Read “Why Is It Difficult to Get Christians to Care About the Earth?” at Sojo.net.

Read “QAnon believers grapple with doubt, spin new theories as Trump era ends: 'We all got played'“ at Chron.

  • Read “It’s Over’: Devastated QAnon Believers Grapple With President Joe Biden’s Inauguration” at Huff Post.

Read “In rare rebuke, Cardinal Cupich criticizes USCCB president’s letter to President Biden” at America Magazine.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Man Arrested in D.C. With Unauthorized Inauguration Credentials, a Loaded Gun, and Lots of Ammo” at Slate.

Read “Biden will sign executive order to reunite migrant families separated at the border” at MSNBC.

Read ‘Two Guard members removed from Biden inauguration over ties to far-right groups” at The HIll.

Read “The 'Racial Caste System' At The U.S. Capitol” at NPR.

Read “Wayfair workers, supporters protest furniture sale to U.S. immigrant camp” at Reuters.

Read “Supreme Court faces bomb threat during Biden's inauguration” at Business Insider.

Read “NRA can’t dodge accountability by moving to Texas: N.Y. AG James” at NY Daily News.

Read “The DEA May Have Botched a Mexican Cartel Case Over Slang for ‘Balls’” at Vice.

Read “House leader calls for FBI investigation into Parler” at The Verge.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrection // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “The Whole Story In A Single Photo” at The Atlantic. ‘An image from the Capitol captures the distance between who we purport to be and who we have actually been.”

Read ‘Capitol rioters included highly trained ex-military and cops” at Associated Press.

ReadCapitol riots: Police describe a 'medieval battle'“ at BBC.

Read ‘Criminal charges filed against Jenna Ryan, Frisco real estate broker who was part of Capitol mob” at Dallas News.

Read “I think this is a wake-up call”: Seeing a familiar face in the Capitol riot” at Vox. “Some are grappling with the prevalence of extremism in America, after seeing co-workers and fellow churchgoers in the riot.”

Read “Capitol Police intelligence report warned three days before attack that ‘Congress itself’ could be targeted” at Washington Post.

Read “Selfie-Snapping Rioters Leave FBI a Trail of Over 140,000 Images” at Bloomberg.

  • Read “Dating apps are using Capitol images to ban rioters’ accounts” at Washington Post.

Read “Sasse: Capitol rioters 'came dangerously close to starting a bloody constitutional crisis'“ at The Hill.

Read “Pelosi suggests criminal charges for any lawmaker who helped with Capitol riot” at The Hill.

  • Read “Colorado officials pen letter requesting probe into Boebert's actions” at The Hill.

  • Read “Lauren Boebert vowed to shake things up in Congress. She has delivered in her first week” at Colorado Sun.

  • Read “Comms director for gun-toting congresswoman quits” at Axios.

Read the opinion piece “Congress Is Still Littered With Insurrectionists” at Slate. “It’s time to remove the busts of these traitors from Statuary Hall.”

Read “The January 6 insurrection was a last gasp for white supremacy” at MSNBC.

Read “Experts say Trump, Congress members could be targets of Capitol invasion investigation” at MSNBC.

Read “A Former Marine Stormed the Capitol as Part of a Far-Right Militia” at New Yorker.

Read “Online far-right movements fracture in wake of Capitol riot” at NBC News.

Read “Former US attorney general William Barr tells ITV News questioning election legitimacy 'precipitated Capitol riots'“ at ITV.

Read “The Confederate battle flag: Longtime symbol of white insurrection” at Salon.

Read “The FBI is tracing a digital trail to Capitol rioters” at Axios.

Read “Mitch McConnell Says Capitol Rioters Were ‘Provoked’ By Trump” at Huff Post.

Read “MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Says Bed Bath And Beyond, Kohl’s To Drop His Products; Dominion Voting Systems Threatens To Sue” at Minnesota CBS Local.

Read “An apparent leader of Oath Keepers charged with planning and coordinating breach at US Capitol” at CNN.

Read “Scottsdale Prosecutors Seek to Revoke Baked Alaska's Release Due to Capitol Livestream” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Nearly 1 In 5 Defendants In Capitol Riot Cases Served In The Military” at NPR.

This Week With The Police:

Read Sheriffs Helped Lead This Insurrection” at Slate. “Sheriffs play a key role in right-wing white supremacist movements.”

Read “The Cops at the Captiol” at The Appeal. “Law enforcement officers from around the country attended and supported last week’s rally in support of President Trump that sparked a riot.” “At least 32 members of law enforcement agencies from 15 states have been identified as having participating in the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally.”

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Europe’s Schools Are Closing Again on Concerns They Spread Covid-19” at Wall Street Journal. “Countries are abandoning pledges to keep classrooms open as concerns mount over children’s capacity to pass on the virus.”

Read “‘A hack job,’ ‘outright lies’: Trump commission’s ‘1776 Report’ outrages historians” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Biden to rescind 1776 commission via executive order” at CNN.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read, “Yes, the Pandemic Is Ruining Your Body” at The Atlantic. “Quarantine is turning you into a stiff, hunched-over, itchy, sore, headachy husk.”

Read “Vaccine reserve was already exhausted when Trump administration vowed to release it, dashing hopes of expanded” at Washington Post.

Read ‘COVID-19 exposure on flights is more common than you think. The US doesn't share details, but Canada does” at USA Today.

Read ‘There have now been over two million virus-related deaths worldwide” at New York Times.

Read “Arizona has highest rate of COVID-19 in world, data shows” at ABC 15.

Read “Charles Barkley: Athletes pay more in taxes, 'deserve some preferential treatment' for COVID-19 vaccine” at The Hill.

Read “This Coronavirus Is Unlike Anything in Our Lifetime, and We Have to Stop Comparing It to the Flu” at Pro Publica.

Read “Dallas County axes plan to prioritize vaccinating communities of color after state threatens to slash allocation” at Texas Tribune.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read The Importance, and Incoherence, of Twitter’s Trump Ban” at The New Yorker. ““It’s coherent—and in my view absolutely appropriate—to believe both that (i) the social media companies were right to suspend Trump’s accounts last week; and (ii) the companies’ immense power over public discourse is a problem for democracy.”

Read “NRA files for bankruptcy” at CNN.

Read ‘Biden plans early legislation to offer legal status to 11 million immigrants without it” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Pepsi, Coca-Cola will not run ads during Super Bowl” at The Hill.

Read ‘‘Guardians’ Star Offers $20,000 Reward in’TRUMP’ Manatee Case” at Huff Post.

Read “Social media has been radicalizing people for years” at Marketplace.

Read “Technologists Use Facial Recognition on Parler Videos” at Vice.

Read “One of President Biden's first orders of business: Following Chrissy Teigen on Twitter” at AV Club.

Internationalities:

Read “Japan Virus Surge Makes Suga More Look Like Short-Term Premier” at Bloomberg.

Read “Saudi Arabia Curbs Death Penalty in Move to Soften Image” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Joe Biden to Cancel Keystone Pipeline, Another Blow to Canadian Oil Industry” at Vice.

Read “US calls China's abuses of Muslim minorities 'genocide' and 'crimes against humanity” at ABC News.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Josh Hawley, who led Senate efforts to overturn the election results, is being targeted by a super PAC” at New York Times.

Read “Conservative Website Admits Its Stories About Dominion Were ‘Completely False’ in Massive Retraction” at Media-ite.

Read “Biden Covid-19 Relief Plan Aims to Ease Poverty, Advance Democratic Priorities” at Wall Street Journal.

  • Read “How Joe Biden’s $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Proposal Helps Women” at Huff Post.

Read “Three days after President Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Andy Biggs threatened to sue former political rival Joan Greene for defamation in a letter” at AZ Central. “Greene's lawyer said the letter "has all of the strength of a sloppy Kleenex."

Read “Former GOP congressman says he's leaving party: 'This has become a cult'“ (EDITOR’S NOTE: “AMEN”).

Read “Manchin: Removing Hawley, Cruz with 14th Amendment 'should be a consideration'“ at The HIll.

Read “The 15 most notable lies of Donald Trump's presidency” at CNN.

Read “FBI vetting service members ahead of inauguration amid reported fears of insider attack” at NBC News.

Read “Dominion threatens MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell with lawsuit over ‘false and conspiratorial’ claims” at Washington Post.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read ‘Newly sworn-in GOP senator suggests delaying inauguration” at The Hill.

Read “Limbaugh falsely says Biden didn't win legitimately while reacting to inauguration” at The Hill.

Read “At This Trump-Favored Charity, Financial Reporting Is Questionable and Insiders Are Cashing In” at Pro Publica.

Read “Giuliani associate told ex-CIA officer a Trump pardon would 'cost $2m’” at The Guardian.

Read the opinion piece “What Does Josh Hawley Think He’s Doing?” at Washington Post.

Read “Trump Does His Part in Scandalizing the Presidential Pardon Power” at National Review.

  • Read “Trump commutes 40-year sentence of Clearwater Ponzi scheme operator” at Tampa Bay Times.

  • Read “Joe Exotic says he was ‘too gay’ to be pardoned by Trump” at New York Post.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Bruce Springsteen and Foo Fighters to Play at Biden-Harris Inauguration Event” at Pitchfork.

  • Read “Lady Gaga to Sing National Anthem at Biden-Harris Inauguration” at New Now Next.

  • Read “MF DOOM, Kendrick Lamar Highlight Joe Biden Official Inauguration Playlist’ at OkayPlayer.

  • Read “New Radicals Reuniting After 22 Years to Perform at Biden Inauguration Event” at Pitchfork.

Read “Ariel Pink and Tucker Carlson Are Both Parasites” at Vice. “Pink played the victim on Fox News Thursday night, and Carlson gladly let him do it. No one mentioned that Pink is facing allegations of abuse.”

  • Read “Ariel Pink Accused of Sexual Abuse and Misconduct” at Spin.

Read “Marianne Faithfull: 'I was in a dark place. Presumably it was death'“ at The Guardian. “After battling Covid-19 for three weeks in hospital, Faithfull went on to finish her 21st solo album – and possibly her last. She reflects on how she might never sing again, her hatred of being a 60s muse and why she still believes in miracles.”

Read “Dr. Dre Released from Hospital Following Brain Aneurysm Scare” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Mozart apparently liked to imitate cats. Here’s the tail as we know it” at Classic.fm.

Read “Rough Trade Closing Current Brooklyn Location” at Stereogum.

Read “Gary Numan: 'One of my songs got over a million streams - I got £37'“ at Sky News.

Read “With COVID-19 Transmissions Under Control, New Zealand Hosts 20,000-Person Concert” at Relix.

Read “A Probably Futile Attempt To Figure Out What Happened To Mark Kozelek” at Uproxx.

Read “Trump Pardons Lil Wayne and Kodak Black” at Pitchfork.

Read “Van Morrison to start legal action over Northern Ireland Covid ban on live music” at The Guardian.

Read “An Update From The Wrens On The Most Delayed Indie Album In History” at Uproxx.

  • Read “Charles Bissell Details New Wrens Album And Teases 2021 Release: “Plans Are Afoot”” at Stereogum.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Historian Dr. Ibram X. Kendi to Produce Three Netflix Projects Based on His Anti-Racism Books” at People.

Read “Ken Burns Says U.S. Has 3 Viruses: COVID-19, White Supremacy And Misinformation” at NPR.

Read “‘The Muppet Show’ Heads To Disney+” at Deadline.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen to pen foreword for impeachment book” at The Hill.

Read “Why Should You Read Toni Morrison’s Beloved? An Animated Video Makes the Case” at Open Culture.

Read “'Wow, you're awesome': Cooper left speechless by youth poet laureate” at CNN.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “The most expensive comic art in the world was folded up in a drawer for decades” at Boing Boing.

Read “Wanna buy a Botticelli? The masterpiece coming to auction, and who might nab it” at Los Angeles Times.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Mice may ‘catch’ each other’s pain — and pain relief” at Science News.

Food Cultures:

Read “Oscar Mayer Is Hiring Wienermobile Drivers for Road Trips Across the U.S.” at Thrill List.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Hanging Pillar of Lepakshi Veerabhadra Temple Lepakshi, India” at Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “Bill aims to disallow Sharpies to be used on ballots” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Oatman Ghost Town Oatman, Arizona” at Atlas Obscura. “This Wild West ghost town on Route 66 is filled with wild burros.”

The Weekly Town Crier (01/15/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/15/21).


We’ll Miss You:


Read “Hall of Fame Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda dies at 93” at ESPN.

Read “Joanne Rogers, Widow of Fred Rogers and Classical Pianist, Dies at 92” at People.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “A Christian Insurrection” at The Atlantic. “Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on Wednesday claimed to be enacting God’s will.”

  • Read “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States” at Dallas Seminary.

  • Read “Truth over power: It is past time for the church to speak plainly about the election” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “Taking the white Christian nationalist symbols at the Capitol riot seriously” at Religion News Service. “The attack exposed the comfortable juxtaposition of Christianity and white supremacy.”

  • Read “About 60 the 138 House members who objected to the Electoral College count were evangelical Christians” at The Way of Improvement.

  • Read “SBC leader Russell Moore to Trump: Time to leave. ‘People are dead’” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “How White Evangelical Christians Fused With Trump Extremism” at New York Times. “A potent mix of grievance and religious fervor has turbocharged the support among Trump loyalists, many of whom describe themselves as participants in a kind of holy war.”

  • Read “Statement signed by 223 faculty and staff at evangelical Wheaton College condemns the "vicious lies, deplorable violence, white supremacy" and "blasphemous abuses of Christian symbols" on display in Washington last week” (via Ruth Graham).

  • Read “The Roman Road from Insurrection” by Russell Moore. ‘You cannot stand for “law and order” while waving away lawlessness. You cannot champion the pro-life cause while waving away murder. You cannot support police by the murder of police officers. You cannot support religious liberty by trashing the United States Constitution.”

  • Read “For insurrectionists, a violent faith brewed from nationalism, conspiracies and Jesus” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “Political and religious violence at the US Capitol” at KCRW.

  • Read “Scholars of Religion and Politics Respond to the Capitol Insurrection” at Religion and Politics.

  • Read “Christian Nationalism Is Worse Than You Think” at Christianity Today. “Millions of Americans believe in this political ideology. What church leaders need to know—and how they can help those under its influence.”

  • Read “'How Did We Get Here?' A Call For An Evangelical Reckoning On Trump” at NPR.

  • Read “QAnon is the Perfect Evangelical Conspiracy” at Christian Socialism.

Read “Southern Baptist leaders meet after critical race theory document caused controversy” at Religion News Service.

Read “Evangelicals face a reckoning: Donald Trump and the future of our faith” at USA Today.

Read

“Capitol Hill Trump rally organizer Ali Alexander goes into hiding, raises $20k on Christian crowdfunding site” at Occupy Democrats.

Read “Only the Church Can Truly Defeat a Christian Insurrection” by David French. “It’s time to combat the right’s enabling lies.”

Read “Life or Debt Dave Ramsey's Capitalist Theology” at Christian Socialism.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender//Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Domestic Terrorism: A More Urgent Threat, but Weaker Laws” at Pro Publica. “Authorities dissuaded some extremists from traveling to Washington, and shared intelligence with Capitol Police, but could not stop the mob that stormed the Capitol, a senior FBI official says.”

  • Read “Proud Boys member arrested after allegedly threatening to kill Warnock” at The Hill.

Read “For Black Americans, The White Terror In D.C. Looks Familiar” at Huff Post.

Read “Illinois GOP Rep. Mary Miller apologizes for Hitler remark at pro-Trump rally: Calls remain for her to resign” at Chicago Sun Times.

Read “The US economy lost 140,000 jobs in December. All of them were held by women” at CNN. (EDITOR’S NOTE: “ALL OF THEM were held by women.” This is not OK.)

Read “Woman who accused Black teen of stealing her phone charged with attempted assault” at The HIll.

Read “Michigan Capitol Commission bans open carry of guns inside state Capitol” at Detroit Free Press.

Read “FBI bulletin warns of nationwide armed protests” at The Hill.

Read ‘Credit card companies need to help stop the spread of untraceable 'ghost guns'“ at Business Insider.

Read “The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Race” at NPR. “Pro-Trump extremists breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. The insurrection was just the latest chapter in America's ongoing battle over race, writes NPR host Sam Sanders.”

Read “New York State Bar Association Weighs Stripping Giuliani of Membership” at Wall Street Journal.

  • Read “Nearly 6,000 lawyers and law students call for disbarment proceedings against Cruz and Hawley” at The Hill.

  • Read “New York State Bar Association moves to oust Rudy Giuliani” at NBC News.

Read “Democrats Unveil Legislation To Abolish The Federal Death Penalty” at NPR.

Read “Rittenhouse seen out on bail drinking with members of Proud Boys, prosecutors say” at The Hill.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff // and or Sedition, Treason and That Kind of Stuff):

Read “US Capitol police officer is dead after injured during pro-Trump riots” at Yahoo.

  • Read “Experts: Arizona's far-right extremism "getting worse," DC rioters on-the-run” at ABC15.

  • Read “‘Senate Being Locked Down’: Inside a Harrowing Day at the Capitol” at New York Times. “Three New York Times journalists were at the Capitol when it was breached. Here’s how they experienced it.”

  • Read “If the mob’s attack on the Capitol surprised you, you weren’t paying attention” at Religion News Service. “The truth is, this is precisely who we are. White supremacy is at the foundation of this country.”

  • Read “Donald Trump's Ex-AG Bill Barr Calls President's Conduct During Capitol Mob a 'Betrayal'“ at Newsweek.

  • Read “Capitol Rioters Planned for Weeks in Plain Sight. The Police Weren’t Ready” at Pro Publica.

  • Read ‘NAE Denounces Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol” at National Association of Evangelicals.

  • Read “LeBron James on Capitol riots: 'We live in two Americas'“ at The Hill.

  • Read “Pro-Trump rioters smeared poop in U.S. Capitol hallways during belligerent attack” at Orlando Sentinel.

  • Read “Sen. Mark Warner Says FBI Assured Him Prior to Rioting Situation Would Be Under Control” at Wall Street Journal.

  • Read “The Police’s Tepid Response To The Capitol Breach Wasn’t An Aberration” at Five Thirty Eight.

  • Read ‘Will the riot in Washington deter foreign investment in the U.S.?” at MarketPlace.

  • Read “Some state legislators face calls for resignation after taking part in Capitol turmoil” at MSN.

    • Read “Video surfaces of Oregon GOP Rep holding state Capitol door open, allowing protestors to enter” at The Hill.

    • Read “Republican lawmakers caught helping pro-Trump mobs at U.S. Capitol, Oregon statehouse” at Salon.

    • Read “Republican AGs group sent robocalls urging march to the Capitol” at NBC News. ““At 1 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” said the voice on the recording, which was obtained by NBC News.”

    • Read “Mikie Sherrill claims Congress members gave 'reconnaissance' tours day before Capitol raid” at North Jersey.

    • Read “Law enforcement and the military probing whether members took part in Capitol riot” at NBC.

    • Read “Rep. Jim Clyburn Says Mob Knew Where His Unmarked Office Was Suggesting A Coordinated Attack” at PoliticusUSA.

  • Read “U.S. Diplomats Draft Dissent Cable Following Storming of Capitol by Pro-Trump Mob” at Foreign Policy.

  • Read “Alabama man had 11 Molotov cocktails 'ready to go' at U.S. Capitol riot” at Montgomery Advertiser.

  • Read “Fallout intensifies over Trump's response to Capitol riot” at CNN.

  • Read “An 18-Year-Old Saw Her Mom, Aunt, And Uncle In DC In A Video — So She Named Them” at Buzzfeed.

    • Read “Capitol Rioter Seen in Horned Hat, Carrying Spear Arrested: US Attorney” at NBC Washington.

      • Read “Arizona man wearing horns during U.S. Capitol riots, 'Q Shaman,' now faces felony indictment” at ABC 15.

    • Read “Capitol Rioter Spotted in Chamber with Zip Ties Is Arrested After Ex-Wife Calls FBI” at People.

    • Read “Man in 'Camp Auschwitz' sweatshirt during Capitol riot identified” at CNN.

  • Read “Georgia attorney among those who broke into U.S. Capitol” at AJC.

    • Read “West Virginia lawmaker, charged after filming himself storming U.S. Capitol, resigns” at CBS News.

    • Read “Republican lawmaker resigns after arrest for storming US Capitol” at Ars Technica.

    • Read “Oregon state lawmaker who opened door for armed protesters kicked off committees, billed for damages” at The Hill.

  • Read “It Was No Accident’ Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on surviving the siege” at The Cut.

    • Read “Capitol Police Officers Said They Wouldn’t Be Surprised If Members Of Congress Helped Plan The Attack” at Buzzfeed.

  • Read “The Inaction of Capitol Police Was by Design” at The Atlantic. “The spectacle of Wednesday’s tepid police response to riotous mobs shocked many. But the passivity is not some surprising anomaly—it is the status quo.”

    • Read “Seattle police investigating officers who were in DC amid Capitol riot” at The Hill.

    • Read “An Air Force Combat Veteran Breached the Senate” at The New Yorker.

  • Read “Members of Several Well-Known Hate Groups Identified at Capitol Riot” at Pro Publica.

    • Read “For Black Americans, The White Terror In D.C. Looks Familiar” at Huff Post.

  • Read “Ivanka Calls Mob of Trump Supporters 'American Patriots' in Now Deleted Tweet and People Are Calling Her Out” at Second Nexus.

  • Read “Gold medalist Olympic swimmer recognized amid Capitol mob” at The Hill.

  • Read “Now it's sinking in: Wednesday's Capitol Hill riot was even more violent than it first appeared” at CNN.

  • Read “These Black Capitol Police Officers Describe Fighting Off "Racist Ass Terrorists"“ at Buzzfeed. “Two Black officers told BuzzFeed News that their chief and other upper management left them totally unprepared and were nowhere to be found on the day.”

  • Read “Fox News Host Dragged for Calling Siege on the Capitol 'a Huge Victory for These Protesters'“ at Second Nexus.

  • Read “A Christian Insurrection” at The Atlantic. “Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on Wednesday claimed to be enacting God’s will.”

    • ReadRead “For insurrectionists, a violent faith brewed from nationalism, conspiracies and Jesus” at Religion News Service” at Religion News Service.

  • Read “‘The storm is here’: Ashli Babbitt’s journey from capital ‘guardian’ to invad” at Washington Post.

  • ReadArizona Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar implicated by activist in Capitol insurrection” at AZ Central.

  • Read “One Trump Fan’s Descent Into the U.S. Capitol Mob” at Wall Street Journal. “Doug Sweet joined rioters who breached the Capitol, where he was eventually arrested.”

  • Read “GOP Congressman Who Investigated Benghazi Calls Trump Inciting Riot ‘A Misstep’” at Huff Post.

  • Read “Rep. Meijer: I experienced the heinous assault on Capitol; now, time to face reality” at Detroit News.

  • Read “The FBI Says There's No Evidence Of Antifa Involvement In The Capitol Mob” at Buzzfeed.

  • Read “Ex-Capitol Police Chief Says Requests For National Guard Denied 6 Times In Riots” at NPR.

  • Read “Six hours of paralysis: Inside Trump’s failure to act after a mob stormed the Capitol” at Washington Post.

  • Read “'Hate in their heart': Lawmakers fear more violence after Capitol attacks” at Politico.

  • Read “Before Capitol Riot, Republican Lawmakers Fanned the Flames” at New York Times. “A “1776 moment”: Several of the president’s closest allies in Congress used bellicose language to urge their supporters to attend the Jan. 6 rally that turned into a deadly riot.”

  • Read “A Federalist Society Star Helped Foment the Capitol Riot” at Slate. “The Federalist Society has no comment.”

Read “Trump Rallies Were a Preview of the Capitol Attack” at The Atlantic. “Those following the president’s events around the country for the past four years were not surprised by the mob violence that unfolded in Washington.”

  • Read “Pro-Trump Rally Organizer Name-Checks Theory Pushed by Violent Extremists” at Vice. “Ali Alexander denies that he was agreeing with advocates for violent social collapse, saying the statement was made in the "context of technology."

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read ‘NAE Denounces Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol” at National Association of Evangelicals.

Read “Protesters, many armed, gather for a 'patriot rally' outside Kentucky state Capitol” at Courier-Journal.

Read “Police three times more likely to use force against left-wing protests” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “The Inaction of Capitol Police Was by Design” at The Atlantic. “The spectacle of Wednesday’s tepid police response to riotous mobs shocked many. But the passivity is not some surprising anomaly—it is the status quo.”

  • Read “Seattle police investigating officers who were in DC amid Capitol riot” at The Hill.

  • Read “Capitol Police Chief Sund has stepped down, leaving earlier than expected” at Washington Post.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read ‘Pandemic Pricetag: U.S. Employers Cut 140,000 Jobs In December” at NPR.

Read “State Farm Stadium To Operate As 24/7 Vaccine Site As Maricopa County Enters Phase 1B” at KJZZ.

Read “Arizona again ranks No. 1 for weekly COVID-19 case rate as state reports nearly 9K new cases, rising hospitalizations” at AZ Central.

Read “Idaho Lawmakers Sue Saying Returning To State Capitol Amid COVID-19 Violates ADA” at NPR.

Read “Disneyland Resort in Anaheim to house COVID-19 vaccination ‘super’ site” at KTLA.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Letter to Jack Dorsey from Twitter employees asking to permanently suspend Donald Trump's account” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Twitter bans President Trump permanently” at CNN.

Read “Google Pulls Parler as Apple Threatens the Same in Wake of Capitol Riot” at Wall Street Journal.

  • Read “Pro-Trump Lawyer Lin Wood Calls For Pence to Be Executed, Parler Removed Posts” at Media-ite.

  • Read “Amazon Is Booting Parler Off Of Its Web Hosting Service” at Buzzfeed.

  • Read Parler CEO Says Service Dropped By “Every Vendor” And Could End His Business” at Deadline.

  • Read “PGA pulls 2022 tournament from Trump's Bedminster after Capitol riot” at MSNBC.

  • Read “Conspiracy theories collide online as Parler goes dark” at CNET.

Read “Platforms Must Pay for Their Role in the Insurrection” at Wired. “Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have spent years fomenting and enabling yesterday’s violence at the Capitol. Policymakers need to do something about it.”

Read “A Truth Reckoning: Why We’re Holding Those Who Lied For Trump Accountable” at Forbes.

Read ‘American Airlines pilot says he'll divert plane and strand Trump supporters in Kansas if they don't 'behave'“ at Business Insider.

Read “4 in 5 say US is falling apart” at The Hill.

Internationalities:

Read “Treasury Department sanctions inner circle of Russian agent Derkach for election interference” at The Hill.

Read “China plans further Hong Kong crackdown after mass arrest” at Reuters.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Lawmakers, governor condemn Rep. Mary Miller’s ‘Hitler was right on one thing’ comment” at WCIA.

Read “Sidney Powell Sued by Dominion for $1.3 Billion Over Vote-Fraud Claims” at Bloomberg.

Read “Senior Trump Official: We Were Wrong, He’s a ‘Fascist’” at New York Magazine.

Read “Multiple Democratic senators call for Cruz and Hawley to resign” at The Hill.

Read “Blue Cross Blue Shield Association suspends donations to lawmakers who opposed Electoral College count” at The Hill.

  • Read “Marriott Suspends Donations to Senators Who Opposed Vote Result” at Bloomberg.

  • Read “Stripe Stops Processing Payments for Trump Campaign Website” at Wall Street Journal.

  • Read ‘Major corporations say they will stop donating to members of Congress who tried to overturn the election” at Popular Info.

Read “Mayor Demands Tighter Security in D.C. for Biden Inauguration” at Bloomberg.

Read “House GOP leader tells members to quit spreading lies on riot, antifa” at The Hill.

Read “Pence letter to Pelosi rejecting calls to invoke 25th Amendment” at The Hill.

Read “John McCain movie in the works with support from family” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “The Republicans Have an Insurrectionist Caucus” at Slate.

Read “Amash's Successor Peter Meijer: Trump's Deceptions Are 'Rankly Unfit'“ at Reason. The rookie GOP congressman describes Capitol Hill chaos, says that some Republicans who knew better voted against election certification out of physical fear, and explains how serving in Iraq and Afghanistan made him want to "end the endless wars."

Read “Bankrolling the Disenfranchisers” at Citizen.Org. “Since 2016, Corporate and Trade Association PACs Have Given $170 Million to Lawmakers Who Voted to Challenge the Presidential Election.”

Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene says she will introduce impeachment articles against Biden” at The Hill.

Music-Related News and Such:


Read “Why So Many Pop Stars Are Trying to Be Working-Class Heroes Now” at Pitchfork. “Artists including Justin Bieber, Drake, and Travis Scott are making clumsy plays at humble relatability during an era of deepening economic inequality.”

Read ‘Nicki Minaj to Pay Tracy Chapman $450,000 in Copyright Infringement Lawsuit” at Pitchfork.

Read “R.E.M. For The People” at Oxford American.

Browse “Rare and Stunning Photographs of Iggy Pop Taken by His Girlfriend Esther Friedman” at The Mind Circle.

Read “See Devo Perform Live for the Very First Time (Kent State University, 1973)” at Open Culture.

Read “Sex Pistols biopic series from ‘Trainspotting’ director Danny Boyle coming to FX” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Ariel Pink Dropped by Record Label Mexican Summer After Attending Pro-Trump White House Rally” at Pitchfork.

Read “Dr. Fauci Believes Venues Could Reopen For Live Music This Fall” at Jambase.

Read “When Punk Got the Funk” at Pop Matters. “As punks were looking for some potential pathways out of the cul-de-sacs of their limited soundscapes, they saw in funk a way to expand the punk palette without sacrificing either their ethos or idea(l)s.”

Read “New Billie Holiday Film Gets First Trailer: Watch” at Pitchfork.

Read “Why Are the Backstreet Boys Tweeting About QAnon?” at Vulture.

Read “Joan Baez to Receive Kennedy Center Honor” at Pitchfork.

Read ‘Hiss Golden Messenger’s First New Song In Over A Year Is The Breezy ‘Sanctuary’” at Uproxx.

Read “Donald Trump Reportedly Presents Toby Keith & Ricky Skaggs With National Medal of the Arts” at Billboard.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:


Read “The Evolution of Ted Danson, Mr. Mayor of Television” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Katie Couric, Aaron Rodgers, Bill Whitaker and Mayim Bialik to Guest Host ‘Jeopardy!’” at Variety.

Read “Chris Evans Reportedly In Talks to Reprise Role as Captain America in the MCU” at IGN.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “The Painter Subverting Art-World Economics, $100 at a Time” at New York Times.

Science/Health/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Study identifies first potential treatment for meth addiction” at The Hill.

Read “A Guy Tried Mainlining Shrooms. Then They Grew in His Blood” at Vice.

Local:

Read ‘Arizona State Senators Prepping Another 'Skinny' Budget Option Amid The Pandemic” at KJZZ.

Read “U.S. Supreme Court REJECTS Efforts to Expedite Remaining AZGOP/Ward's Election Appeals” at Arizona Politics.

Read “Arizona state GOP moves to censure Cindy McCain, Jeff Flake” at The Hill.

The Weekly Town Crier (01/08/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/08/21).


We’ll Miss You:

Read “Gerry Marsden of Gerry & the Pacemakers Dead at 78” at Pitchfork.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Meet Shane Vaughn, Mississippi pastor and star of viral ‘if Trump does not concede’ video” at Religion News Service. “A small-town Mississippi preacher’s video claims President Trump could still win the election.”

Read “The (so-called) "Traditional" Argument is not Traditional” at Christianity Today. “The claim to have a traditional argument ag: women's ordination is far from traditional.” “First, the church’s traditional view is that women were ontologically inferior to men. Second, the church’s traditional view is not that women and men were essentially equal. Third, the view that women and men were essentially equal emerges widespread in the church in about the middle of the Twentieth Century.”

Read ‘Six white men shouldn’t decide Southern Baptist position on race” at Religion News Service. “Last week’s statement from the presidents of six SBC seminaries opposing critical race theory isn’t good for the denomination or evangelism.”

Read “Priesthood of All Professors? Court to Consider ‘Ministerial Exception’ for Gordon College” at Christianity Today. “Decision could impact freedom of faculty, ability of evangelical institutions to hire and fire.”

Read “Biden DHS nominee has ‘refreshing’ meeting with faith groups about immigration, refugees” at Religion News Service. “One attendee described the meeting as 'a 180 degree change from what we've been enduring for the last four years.'

Read “Democrat lawmaker’s gender inclusive ‘amen and awoman’ congressional prayer causes stir” at Independent.

Read ‘Historic Black church in DC sues Proud Boys for destroying Black Lives Matter sign” at Religion News Service. “'We, the descendants of these extraordinary women and men of God, will not allow white supremacist violence to go unchecked by the laws of the land,' said Metropolitan AME pastor the Rev. William H. Lamar IV.”

Read “The SBC, Whiteness, and an Exodus of Black Pastors” by Raymond Chang at Christianity Today.

Read “How the shofar emerged as a weapon of spiritual warfare for some evangelicals” at Religion News Service. “Shofar blowing, as in today's Jericho March, has become commonplace in many political demonstrations far removed from any Jewish or Israel-related themes.”

Read “Taking the white Christian nationalist symbols at the Capitol riot seriously” at Religion News Service. “The attack exposed the comfortable juxtaposition of Christianity and white supremacy.”

Read “Trump’s evangelicals were complicit in the desecration of our democracy” at Washington Post.

Read “Faith groups among those calling for Trump’s impeachment after US Capitol occupation” at Religion News Service. ““The political and religious costs of a tight evangelical alliance with violent bigots and crackpots were easily foreseen. I and many others foresaw and foresaw until our fingers ached at the keyboard.”

Read “We Worship with the Magi, Not MAGA” at Christianity Today.”Epiphany reminds us that faith is not a prop for political power.”

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Indiana law going into effect Jan. 1 will require women to have ultrasound before abortion” at The Hill.

Read “Spying Before Stonewall: How the FBI Secretly Tracked Gay Activists in the 60s” at Vice.

Read “On Kenosha and the difficulty of recognising Nazism in the US” at Al Jazeera. “Nazis have not disappeared. They have simply said they are not Nazis.”

Read “Texas loosens firearm laws hours after the state’s latest mass shooting left five dead” at CNN.

Read “UK judge denies US request to extradite Julian Assange” at CNN.

Read “Kelly Loeffler's new Facebook ad darkens skin of Raphael Warnock, her Black opponent” at Salon.

Read “Illinois teen pleads not guilty in Kenosha protest slayings” at 12 News.

Read “Black Lives Matter in 2021: Where the movement might go” at KCRW.

Read “Ohio governor signs controversial gun bill expanding "stand your ground" right” at CBS News.

Read “Hack of federal agencies 'likely Russian in origin,' U.S. says” at Los Angeles Times.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy//Insurrection stuff):

Read “Madness on Capitol Hill” at Newsweek. “Part insurrection, part happy hour, Trump supporters lost their minds, and I watched a man urinate on the Capitol steps. The nation, ashamed, was left to mourn.”

Read “State capitals come under siege by pro-Trump mobs” at The Hill.

  • Read “State employees told to avoid Arizona Capitol, work from home after certification chaos” at AZ Central.

Read “Arizona Democratic Party Chair: Trump To Blame For Mob At U.S. Capitol” at KJZZ.

Read “The U.S. Capitol was built to inspire awe. But that's all gone now” at Salon. “If those had been Black Lives Matter protesters storming the Capitol, half of them would be dead by now — and the other half would have been tear-gassed, beaten and arrested within minutes.”

Read “Tracking the White Extremists Involved in Insurrection at the Capitol” at The Takeaway.

Read “Police Response to Far-Right Insurrection Draws Comparisons to Last Summer's Black Lives Matter Protests” at The Takeaway. “Black activists and allies were repeatedly targeted by law enforcement, at times with tear gas and physical violence. Though police were present at the Capitol yesterday, far-right insurrectionists faced little resistance from them, as they stormed the building.”

Read “How To Talk To Kids About The Riots At The U.S. Capitol” at NPR.

Read “How To Process A Scary Day For The Nation With Your Kids” at LA-ist.

Read “Antisemites Implicate Jews, Zionists in DC Violence” at Anti Defamation League.

Read “Alabama AG leads nonprofit that helped organize march at Capitol” at Alabama Political Reporter.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “National security law: Mass arrests in Hong Kong 'over primary vote'“ at BBC.

Read “Trump supporters protesting the election begin demonstrating in D.C.” at Washington Post. ‘“I’m going to give everyone three action steps … turn to the person next to you and give them a hug,” one speaker exhorted the crowd. “Someone you don’t know … it’s a mass-spreader event! It’s a mass-spreader event!”

Read “Police: Protesters outside Sen. Josh Hawley’s home were peaceful” at St. Louis Dispatch.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Columbus’ Policing Problem Goes Deeper Than the Shooting of Andre Hill” at Slate.

Read ‘Kenosha: Negligence Claims Filed Against City And County Over Fatal Shootings” at NPR.

Read “2 detectives involved in Breonna Taylor raid are fired” at WLLWT5.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Simple Justice: Kids Deserve School Choice” at Public Discourse.

Read “Betsy DeVos urges Congress to reject student loan forgiveness in apparent farewell letter” at CBS News.

  • Read “Betsy DeVos resigns as Education Secretary” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Prison Guards Without PPE Are Endangering Lives At Yuma Hospital, Nurses Say” at KJZZ.

Read “Belgian retirement home records 26 COVID-19 deaths after visiting Santa tests positive” at The Hill.

Read “Romney: Lack of comprehensive vaccine distribution plan is 'inexcusable'“ at The Hill.

Read “U.S. Surpasses 20 Million Confirmed Coronavirus Cases” at NPR.

Read “North Korea asks for COVID-19 vaccines from international alliance” at The Hill.

Read (Contradicting the president) “Surgeon General says 'no reason to doubt' COVID-19 death toll number” at The Hill.

Read “Coronavirus latest news: Watch live as Boris Johnson makes announcement on new lockdown rules” at Telegraph.

Read “Federal Data Reveal Which Hospitals Are Dangerously Full This Week. Is Yours?” at NPR.

Read “Georgia's First Reported Case Of COVID-19 Variant Detected In 18-Year-Old” at GPB.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “The tale of two Americas. The S&P 500 gained more than 16 percent in 2020 in a year of steep job losses and widespread financial pain” at Washington Post.

Read “'Steamrolled Us In Every Direction' : The Year Grief Hit From All Sides” at NPR.

Read “Wall Street minted 56 new billionaires since the pandemic began — but many families are left behind” at NBC News.

Read “One dead, several injured in Texas church shooting” at NBC News.

Read “Sherlock Holmes and the case of toxic masculinity: what is behind the detective’s appeal?” at Salon.

Read “U.S. government checks constituted 40% of farmers’ income in 2020: USDA” at Market Watch (EDITOR’S NOTE: I thought the U.S. was against Socialism?)

Read “Google Workers Publicly Launch Union” at Vice.

Read “Grief’s Anatomy” by Hanif Abdurraqib at The Baffler. “Hope awaits organizers like a trap.”

Read ‘How Memorial Tattoos Can Help With The Grieving Process” at Huff Post. “Remembrance tattoos can aid people dealing with loss in more ways than you might realize, according to mental health experts.”

Read “Exporting the U.S. Shale Boom Has Changed Oil Markets Forever” at Bloomberg.

Read The modern US army: unfit for service?” at The Guardian. “Gone are the days of the all-American army hero. These days, the US military is more like a sanctuary for racists, gang members and the chronically unfit.”

Internationalities:

Read “White House announces $3.7bn aid grant for Puerto Rico” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Protests Erupt Again in Senegal Over COVID-19 Curfew” at Okay Africa.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Corporate group urges officials consider Trump's removal 'to preserve democracy'“ at Reuters.

Read “Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward fails (again) to destroy America” at AZ Central.

Read “What we forget about Jimmy Carter's legacy” at CNN.

Read “Trump leaves mark on immigration policy, some of it lasting” at KTAR.

Read “Nancy Pelosi narrowly re-elected as US House speaker” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Fed Returns Money to Treasury for Terminated Emergency Programs” at Bloomberg.

Read ‘We must impeach Trump and bar him from holding office again. Now” at The Guardian.

Read ‘NPR Had The Leaked Trump Tape, Too. Here's What The Newsroom Did With It” at NPR.

Read “After latest failure, Trump legacy to be defined by conduct since election loss” at KTAR.

Read “D.C. Police to contact GOP Rep. Boebert about plans to bring Glock to work” at Politico.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “On Tuesday, an offer of hot chocolate to a shivering voter could become a crime” at AJC.

Read “I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor” at Washington Post.

  • Read “More Republicans Reject Effort to Disrupt Biden’s Certification” at Bloomberg.

  • Read “Wall Street Journal: GOP Electoral College 'stunt' will hurt US, Republican Party” at The Hill.

  • Read “‘Questioning’ Is Over: All Living Former Defense Secretaries Decry Election Attacks” at Huff Post. “Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts."

    Read “Chip Roy challenges seating of House members from six presidential battleground states” at The Hill.

  • Read ‘Perdue and Loeffler Are Abetting Trump’s Coup Attempt” at Slate. “Their response to the leaked phone call shows how far they’re willing to go.”

  • Read “Judge floats sanctions for attorneys who sought to block Congress from counting electoral votes” at The Hill.

  • Read “Trump pressures Pence to throw out election results — even though he can't” at Politico.

  • Read “Cori Bush introduces legislation to sanction, remove all House members who supported election challenges” at The Hill.

  • Read “Trump publicly acknowledges he won't serve a second term a day after inciting mob” at CNN.

  • Read “Justice Department warns of national security fallout from Capitol Hill insurrection” at Politico.

  • Read “Capitol Attack Leads Democrats to Demand That Trump Leave Office” at New York Times.

  • Read “Maryland company terminates employee who wore badge during Capitol rioting” at The Hill.

  • Read “Jake Angeli: The Psychedelic Guru Who Stormed The Capitol” at Psymposia.

  • Read ‘These Are the Rioters Who Stormed the Nation’s Capitol” at New York Times. “The mob that rampaged the halls of Congress included infamous white supremacists and conspiracy theorists.”

  • Read “Some among America's military allies believe Trump deliberately attempted a coup and may have had help from federal law-enforcement officials” at Business Insider.

Read “GOP leaders in Pa. Senate will refuse to seat Democrat certified by state as winner” at Inquirer.

  • Read “PA Legislature Descends Into Chaos After Republicans Refuse to Seat Certified Democratic State Senate Winner” at Second Nexus.

  • Read “Pa. governor calls GOP refusal to seat Democrat a 'shameful power grab'“ at The Hill.

Read “Sen. David Perdue Sold His Home to a Finance Industry Official Whose Organization Was Lobbying the Senate” at Pro Publica.

Read “Forty Fort man applied for a ballot for his deceased mother, detectives allege” at Citizen’s Voice.

Read “U.S. Capitol In Chaos As Pro-Trump Extremists Breach Building” at NPR.

  • Read “4 people died as Trump supporters occupied Capitol; 1 woman shot by police, 3 in medical emergencies” at WWay.

  • Read “Back In July, Trump Demanded Capitol Protesters Serve 10 Years In Prison” at Huff Post.

Read “If Trump pardons himself now, he’ll be walking into a trap” at Washington Post.

Music-Related News and Such:

Watch “Five minutes of a mushroom playing a synthesizer” at Boing Boing.

Read “Coltrane, Kamasi and the art of looking both directions at once” at VInyl Factory (from 2018).

Read “Radio-Friendly Unit Shifters” at Slate. “Chris Molanphy talks to veteran Billboard analyst Geoff Mayfield about the Billboard charts in the early SoundScan era.”

Read “You will never forget the music you loved as a 14-year-old. Here’s why.” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Read “Tens of thousands attend New Zealand festivals without having to socially distance” at NME.

Read “Bad Religion reflects on their 40 years in punk rock, from underground to mainstream” at KCRW.

Read “Bruce Springsteen says he has a “big surprise” coming in 2021” at NME.

Read “'The beauty and the tragedy': Gin Blossoms' founder Doug Hopkins' story being told in film” at AZ Central.

Read “Grammy Awards Postponed as Covid-19 Rages in Los Angeles” at New York Times.

Read “Dr. Dre Suffers Brain Aneurysm. In ICU at L.A. Hospital” at TMZ.

Read “Neil Young Sells 50% Stake of Songwriting Catalog to Hipgnosis” at Pitchfork.

Read “What To Do When A New Record Is Skipping” at Discogs.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “How a Fictional Soccer Coach Showed What the World Should Be” by David French. “Ted Lasso and the simple power of forgiveness.”

  • Read “Yes, Ted Lasso Really Is as Delightful as You’ve Heard” at Opus Zine. ‘This endearing Apple TV+ series about an American coaching an English soccer team is one of 2020’s true pop culture highlights.”

Read “Soul Is Pixar at Its Most Unpredictably Weird” at Vulture.

Read “Parents rejoice as Caillou finally meets its long-overdue demise” at AV Club.

Books/Reading/Authors

Browse “Hayao Miyazaki Picks His 50 Favorite Children’s Books” at Open Culture.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Inside the U.S. Army’s Warehouse Full of Nazi Art” at New Yorker.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Scientists Are Fighting Fire (Ants) With Wasabi” at Atlas Obscura.

Read ‘The Milky Way is probably full of dead civilizations” at Space.

Read “Earth is whipping around quicker than it has in a half-century” at Live Science.

Food Cultures:

Read “'I'm 72 and I Grow Giant Vegetables'“ at Newsweek.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “10 Secure Places to Wait Out the Zombie Apocalypse” at Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “Arizona Drivers Get Extra Year To Renew Licenses” at KJZZ. “Arizona is giving drivers an extra year to renew their licenses to minimize in-person visits to Arizona Motor Vehicle Division offices during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Read “Tonto Forest Begins Thinning Project To Reduce Wildfire Risk” at KJZZ.

Read “As Arizona becomes world hot spot, focus put on governor” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Video taken by Arizona governor's son at packed party prompts criticism of Ducey” at AZ Central.

The Weekly Town Crier (01/01/21)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/01/21).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Guitarist Tony Rice Dead at 69” at Pitchfork.

Read “In Memoriam: Leslie West (1945-2020)” at Jambands.

Read “Pierre Cardin, iconic Space Age fashion designer, dead at 98” at New York Post.

Read “MF DOOM, Elusive Bard of Hip-Hop, Dead at 49” at Rolling Stone.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “From cruise ships to Trump’s hotel, Calvinist Christian nationalism is making moves” at Religion News Service. “Michael O'Fallon argues that America's Judeo-Christian heritage and 'the right of self governance' are under attack by the Open Society Foundation and society at large.”

Read “The Nationalist Roots of White Evangelical Politics” at Dissent. “From its origins, white evangelicalism has been marked by a vision of a Christian America, driven to overcome its perceived enemies.”

Read “The Church Needs Prophets, But It Wants Lawyers” by David French. “It’s time to listen to men and women who tell us what we need to hear.”

Read “RZIM Confirms Ravi Zacharias’s Sexual Misconduct” at Christianity Today.

  • Read “RZIM Branch in UK Calls on U.S. Board to “Reform Radically”” at Roys Report.

Read “Several Black pastors break with the Southern Baptist Convention over a statement on race” at Washington Post.

Read “If You Want to Understand White Evangelicals, Tour a Hobby Lobby Store” at Daily Beast. “The merch illustrates a cultural identity that is clearly Christian but less about loving thy neighbor and more about loving thy guns and a militant white masculine ideal.”

Read “How Jesus became white — and why it’s time to cancel that” at Religion News Service. “Nearly a century later, both ‘Head of Christ’ and criticism of its role in enshrining Jesus as white endure.”

Read “CT’s Top 20 Stories of 2020” at Christianity Today.

Read “Mormon church sued for alleged role in Boy Scouts sex abuse” at KBTX.

Read “The path to enlightenment is an ego trip: Meditation and mindfulness linked to narcissism and feelings of 'spiritual superiority', study finds” at Daily Mail.

Read “There’s no theological education pipeline anymore” by Justo L. González at Christian Century. “It’s been replaced by a thriving irrigation hose.”

Read “Los Angeles activists say Sean Feucht is ‘waging biological warfare’ ahead of homeless outreach events” at Religion News Service. “Activists are holding car caravans on Wednesday and New Year’s Eve to block Christian recording artist Sean Feucht from holding outreach events in two homeless communities in Los Angeles.”

  • Read “Christian Singer Sean Feucht Moves Ahead With New Year's Eve Concerts in LA Despite COVID-19 Rules” at Billboard.

Read “Justin Bieber reportedly studying to be a minister for Hillsong church” at Page Six.

Read “Jericho March plans DC return in the new year to pray Pence will overturn election” at Religion News Service.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Possible human remains found near Nashville explosion site, police chief says” at CNN.

  • Read “These six Nashville police officers evacuated residents moments before motor home exploded” at CNN.

  • Read “Authorities probing whether Nashville bomber Anthony Warner blew up dogs” at New York Post.

  • Read “Investigators reportedly looking into whether Nashville bombing suspect believed in alien lizards” at Task and Purpose.

  • Read “Nashville Bomber's Girlfriend Warned Police About Him In 2019” at NPR.

Read “The Economy Isn’t Working. That’s Exactly the Plan.” at Common Dreams. “Inequality is reaching feudal proportions, where very few own almost everything, and everyone else is crushed under the wheel of engineered destitution.”

Read “Longtime Anti-Nuclear Activists Face Prison, Again, After Breaking Into Naval Base” at NPR.

Read “A Woman Attacked a 14-Year-Old Black Boy on Video After She Falsely Accused Him of Stealing Her Phone” at Vice.

Read “Ghislaine Maxwell denied $28.5m bail in sex crime case” at BBC.

Read “Religion, Abortion, Guns And Race. Just The Start Of A New Supreme Court Menu” at NPR.

Read “Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs bill requiring fetal remains be buried or cremated” at Cincinnati.com.

This Week With The Police:

Read “What we know about the fatal shooting of Andre Hill, a Black man, by Columbus police” at Columbia Dispatch.

  • Read “Ohio police officer fired in fatal shooting of Black man” at AP News.

Read “Phoenix police officer said, 'If the mayor defunds the police, I'm going to shoot her'“ at AZ Central.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Betsy DeVos tells Education Department employees to 'resist' Biden administration, report says” at USA Today.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Covid-19 Aid Bill Remains in Doubt as Congress Braces for Showdown With Trump” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan jailed for 'provoking trouble' with Wuhan reporting” at NBC News.

Read “L.A. County is probing whether a new, more contagious COVID strain is spreading locally” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Still Disinfecting Surfaces? It Might Not Be Worth It” at NPR.

Read “Small Number of Covid Patients Develop Severe Psychotic Symptoms” at New York Times.

Read “If you want to travel next year, you may need a vaccine passport” at CNN.

Read “COVID-19 is taking a heavy toll in America’s mental health-care deserts” at National Geographic.


Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology and/or “Celebrities”):

Read “Shia LaBeouf to Enter Rehab for Addiction and Psychological Issues” at Consequence of Sound.

Internationalities:

Read “US begins labelling illegal settlement products as 'Made in Israel'“ at Middle East Eye.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Growing number of GOP lawmakers back Electoral College challenge” at The Hill.

Read “Senate filibuster designed to oust Mitch McConnell over $2000 survival aid” at Raw Story.

Read “Georgia signature audit finds no fraud in presidential election” at The Hill.

Read “Ossoff slams Loeffler criticism of Warnock: She's 'been campaigning with a Klansman'“ at The Hill.

Read “Graham calls for stand-alone vote on $2K checks” at The Hill.

Read “Biden's Incoming Press Secretary: Briefings Won't Be A Platform For Right-Wing Spin” at NPR.

Read “Republicans Propping Up the Fossil Fuel Industry Is Borderline Socialist” at Slate.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump's final days try to turn the military into a political pawn” at The Hill.

Read “GOP lawmaker sues Pence in bid to overturn Biden win” at The Hill.

  • Read “Pence asks judge to toss GOP lawmaker's bid to overturn election results” at The Hill.

Read “Trump Races to Weaken Environmental and Worker Protections, and Implement Other Last-Minute Policies, Before Jan. 20” at Pro Publica.

Read “Sen. Josh Hawley Will Contest the Electoral College Vote Count” at Slate.

Music-Related News and Such:

Browse The Allmusic 2020 Year In Review.

Read “Interview: Jeff Tweedy on Creativity and Catharsis” at Relix.

Read “How Music Persisted During the Pandemic” at Pitchfork. “From Bandcamp Fridays to Verzuz battles, these were our silver linings from a strange, stuck year in music.”

Browse “Lee Ranaldo lists his favorite guitarists of all time” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Vinyl Just Had Its Best Sales Week in History” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Ticketmaster To Pay $10 Million Fine Following Songkick Legal Dispute” at Relix.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Nadine Labaki to Star in Arabic ‘Perfect Strangers’ Remake” at Variety.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Photographer Crafts Special Camera To Capture Delicate Snowflakes in the Highest Resolution Ever” at My Modern Net.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

National Geographic has chosen their favorite photographs of the year:

  • Browse “The best science pictures of 2020.”

  • Browse “our best animal photos of 2020.”

  • Browse “Family Life 2020—in photos.”

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Wanted: albino python thieves in Massachusetts” at Boing Boing.

The Weekly Town Crier (12/25/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (12/25/20).




Religion and Stuff:

Read “The Darker Side of Christmas” at Wall Street Journal. “In many times and places, the joyful holiday has been a time for melancholy reflections and ghostly visitations.”

Read “Luter, Greear latest Southern Baptist leaders to weigh in as turmoil over race theory grows” at Religion News Service.

Read “Yule traditions new and old wish good riddance to 2020 at the winter solstice” at Religion News Service.

Read “Members of John MacArthur’s Church Say They’re Being Pressured Not to Report New COVID Outbreak” at Julie Roys.

  • Read “GCC Pastor Accuses Journalist of Lying About Outbreak Reporting” at Church Leaders.

Read “Homeless advocates organize against Sean Feucht’s upcoming outreach in Skid Row” at Religion News Service. “Pastor Stephen ‘Cue’ Jn-Marie said the area’s homeless community doesn’t need ‘people to come in for a photo op.’”

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “France charges Epstein ex-associate over sex crime claims” at Al Jazeera.

Read “The Proud Boys are using YouTube to organize violence at Joe Biden’s inauguration” at Daily Dot.

Read “Bar complaint filed against Trump attorneys in Arizona” at 12 News.

Read “The truth in Black and white: An apology from The Kansas City Star” at Kansas City Star. “Today we are telling the story of a powerful local business that has done wrong.”

Read “White Drug Crime? What’s That?” at Ozy. “Justice is not nearly as blind as it should be.”

Read “The Coronavirus Bill is Also ‘The Most Significant Climate Legislation’ Ever” at NY Mag

Read “Militias Are Getting Fired Up About Gun Control Under Biden” at Vice.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Robert E. Lee statue removed from US Capitol” at The Hill.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Videos Show Boston Police Shove, Pepper-Spray Protesters” at Huff Post.

Read “Far-right protesters storm Oregon Capitol calling for end of COVID-19 restrictions” at The Hill.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Lori Lightfoot Tried To Block Video Of Cops Raiding Wrong Home, Cuffing Naked Woman” at Huff Post.

Read “Texas governor announces proposal to take control of Austin police department” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Texas passes 1 million COVID cases, and experts warn of a surge ‘unlike anything we have seen’” at Dallas News.

Read “Valley healthcare workers say they haven't been able to get appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine” at 12 News.

Read “Wuhan scientist would 'welcome' visit probing lab leak theory” at BBC.

Read “Did Covid Lockdowns Really Clear the Air?” at

Read “Epidemiologists Urge A Cautious Christmas, After Thanksgiving Surge in Some States” at NPR.

Read “Republican club whose maskless conga line went viral responds: Adults have the right to make their own decisions” at The Hill.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “New virus strain found in Australia for first time” at The Hill.

Read “John Mulaney in rehab for cocaine and alcohol abuse” at Page Six.

Read “The Radical Act of Letting Things Hurt: How (Not) to Help a Friend in Sorrow” at Brain Pickings.

Read “U.S. Household Spending Slipped in November” at Wall Street Journal.

Internationalities:

Read “The U.S. missed its window to prevent Russia's huge cyberattack” at MSNBC.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Pence announces that Space Force personnel will be called guardians” at CNN.

Read “GOP senator blocks bill to provide $1,200 stimulus checks” at The Hill.

Read “Barr: No need for special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, election fraud” at The Hill.

Read “Is Trump Cracking Under the Weight of Losing?” at Politico.

Read “House plans Dec. 28 vote to override Trump's possible defense bill veto” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Michael Flynn tells Newsmax that Georgia runoffs are 'fake elections'“ at The Hill.

Read “Officials increasingly alarmed about Trump’s power grab” AT Axios.

Read “AZ Trump Electors Join Suit To Force County To Comply with Subpoenas for Dominion Voting Machines” at Patriot Project.

Read “Pro-Trump network Newsmax airs 2-minute video admitting it has 'no evidence' of outlandish fraud claims against 2 voting-machine companies” at Business Insider.

Read “5,000-Page Funding Bill Including COVID Relief Also Has Section Detailing Reincarnation of Dalai Lama” at Newsweek.

  • Read “Funding deal includes $696B for Pentagon” at The Hill.

  • Read “Congress to approve $1.375 billion for border wall in 2021” at The Hill.

Read “Trump pardons Blackwater contractors jailed for massacre of Iraq civilians” at Guardian.

Music-Related News and Such:

  • Browse Record Crates United’s picks for “100 Records We Loved in 2020.”

Read “David Byrne tells us why there “probably won’t” be a Talking Heads reunion” at NME. “"There’s a lot of differences that haven’t entirely gone away"

Read “Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen Added To Steve Van Zandt’s ‘Stand With Teachers’ Benefit” at American Songwriter.

Read “R. Kelly Has New Date Set for Federal Trial in Chicago” at Pitchfork.

Read “Calexico Connected With Friends on Their First Holiday Album” at Phoenix New Times.

Read BrooklynVegan’s “Top 55 Albums of 2020.”

Read “The Tunnel Reflections on a life in motion by Kevin Morby” at We Present We Transfer.

Read “12-Year-Old DJ Has Equipment Confiscated After School Bathroom Rave” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Independent Venues, Movie Theaters to Get $15 Billion in Federal Aid” at Pitchfork.

Read “An Interview With Willie Nelson at 87: “I Didn’t Ever Think I’d Get This Old”” at Slate.

Read “Listening to the Joy in James Baldwin’s Record Collection” at Hyperallergic.

Read “Josh Kaufman Launched 2 Indie Supergroups And Worked On 2 Surprise Taylor Swift Albums This Year” at Stereogum.

Read “King Khan and Saba Lou Suing Rihanna for Copyright Infringement” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “How Marvel Studios Is Reassembling for 2021 and Beyond” at Variety.

Books/Reading/Authors

Browse Brain Pickings’ picks for their “Favorite Books of 2020.”

The Weekly Town Crier (12/18/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (12/18/20).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Charley Pride, country music's first Black superstar, dies at 86 of COVID-19 complications” at Tennessean.

Read “Tony-Winning Broadway Legend Ann Reinking Dies at Age 71” at Broadway.com.

Read “In Memoriam: “Nationally Recognized Tastemaker” Rita Houston (1961-2020)” at Relix.

Read “Jeremy Bulloch, 'Star Wars' actor who played bounty hunter Boba Fett, dies at 75” at USA Today.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “So, Why is Evangelicalism Not Declining? Because Non-Attenders Are Taking On the Label” at Religion In Public.

Read “The Dangerous Idolatry of Christian Trumpism” by David French. “We can pray peace will prevail, but we’d be fools to presume it will.”

Read “What I Saw At The Jericho March” by Rod Dreher at American Conservative.

  • Read “A Review of Rod Dreher's Live Not by Lies” at Christian Socialism. “Rod Dreher's back in our feeds because of his heroic stand against crass Trumpists. But aside from some aesthetic and rhetorical differences, Dreher depends on the very industrial fear-mongering complex he's decrying.”

Read “‘Proud Boys’ burn Black Lives Matter signs at churches in Washington” at Religion News Service. “'For me it was reminiscent of cross burnings,' said the Rev. Ianther M. Mills, pastor of a church whose Black Lives Matter sign was burned.”

Read “RZIM Apologist Sends Stunning Letter: Says Ministry Has Lost Trust & Needs to Make “Meaningful Reparations” at Julie Roys.

Read “It’s Desecration, Not Vandalism”" at Slate. “A longtime congregant on the Proud Boys’ violent attacks on Black churches in Washington.”

Read “Racism, Misogyny and Abuse: Why the SBC Keeps Getting it Wrong” at Faith, Philosophy, and Politics.

Read “Biden should reestablish the faith-based office” at Religion News Service.

Read ‘How to Be Pro-Life in Our Real Lives” at Christianity Today. “The Christian call to care for the vulnerable starts with facing the heightened needs in our own communities.”

Read “White evangelicals, don’t just condemn Christian nationalism. Own it.” at Religion News Service. “Piously opposing Trumpism as evil is empty, because it does not deal with white evangelicalism's own racism.”

Read “CA Pastor Charged With Contempt After Holding Indoor Maskless Church Services” at Patheos.

Read “Fifth Jehovah’s Witness receives six-year sentence in Russia for practicing his faith” at Religion News Service.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Justices rule Muslim men can sue FBI agents over no-fly list” at Religion News Service.

Read “The Pandemic Gave Men a New Way to Sexually Harass Female Restaurant Workers” at Vice. “Pull that mask down so I can see if I want to take you home later,” one customer told a worker.”

Read “Peter Nygard: Fashion mogul faces sex trafficking charges” at BBC.

Read “Right-Wing Embrace Of Conspiracy Is 'Mass Radicalization,' Experts Warn” at NPR.

Read “Report Finds Federal Execution Numbers Top States' for 1st Time” at NBC Philadelphia.

Read “Trump Twitter ‘hack’: Police accept attacker's claim” at BBC. “Dutch prosecutors have found a hacker did successfully log in to Donald Trump's Twitter account by guessing his password - "MAGA2020!"

Read “Sexual Harassment Isn't a Party Issue, It's a Power Issue” at Men Yell at Me. “Or, how the Iowa Democratic Party promoted a state senator accused of harassment.”

Read “38 states file anti-trust lawsuit against Google” at 12 News.

Read “How did a Proud Boys leader with a felony record get into the White House?” at Salon.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “MAGA Protesters Chant ‘Destroy the GOP’ at Pro-Trump Rally” at Rolling Stone.

Read “1 person shot, 5 arrested after opposing protests turn violent in Olympia” at King 5.

Read “MAGA Marchers and Proud Boys Descend on D.C., Setting Fire to Churches' Black Lives Matter Signs and Getting into Stabbing Fights” at The Root.

This Week With The Police:

Read “To Stop Police Violence, We Need Better Questions — and Bigger Demands” at Medium.

Read “Ex-Cop Held Man at Gunpoint to Search for Fraudulent Ballots That Didn't Exist, Prosecutors Say” at Vice.

  • Read “Former Houston police captain accused of violent attempt to prove election conspiracy was hired by GOP activist's group” at Texas Tribune.

Read “The latest tool to help police develop empathy for the public: Virtual reality headsets” at Washington Post.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Harold Budd's Family Confirm Cause Of Death” at The Quietus.

Read “Around America’s ‘Christmas City,’ Rural Churches Left Heartbroken by COVID-19” at Christianity Today.

Read “COVID-19's effects include seizures and movement disorders -- even in some moderate cases, study finds” at AZ Family.

Read “CMA Awards: Unmasked, Indoor Ceremony Raises Questions About COVID-19 Precautions, Producers Cite 'Extremely Diligent' Measures” at TV Line.

Read “Rick Rubin Court Date Set for COVID-19 Quarantine Violation” at Pitchfork.

Read “Dave Ramsey, Christian personal finance guru, defies COVID-19 to keep staff at desks” at Religion News Service.

Read “Arizona has 'all but locked in a humanitarian crisis' ahead of Christmas, expert says” at 12 News. “Dr. Joe Gerald from the University of Arizona said a lack of harsh mitigation tactics have pushed the state into crisis.’

Read “The Mass Distribution of Covid-19 Vaccines Is Under Way. ‘Everything Has to Come Together” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “As U.S. Deaths Surpass 300,000, Obituaries Force Reckoning with Covid” at New York Times.

Read “What The Pandemic Means For The Future Of Movie Theaters” at KJZZ.

Read “Melania Trump breaks children's hospital rules by taking her mask off to read to patients” at CNN.

Read “How Profit and Incompetence Delayed N95 Masks While People Died at the VA” at Pro Publica.

Read “California sheriff refusing to comply with order to release inmates due to COVID” at The Hill.

Read “FDA panel backs Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for use in the US” at CNET. “This follows the backing and subsequent authorization of Pfizer's vaccine last week.”

Read “Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko In Quarantine After COVID-19 Exposure” at KJZZ.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris named Time Person of the Year” at CNN.

Read “Tennessee lawmaker pushing for Presidential Medal of Freedom for Dolly Parton” at News Channel 9.

Read “How Rita Moreno Found Dignity and Strength With Her ‘West Side Story’ Role” at Variety. “I was not treated like a serious young actress and that was very hard. It sent me into psychotherapy, which is one of the smartest things I ever did. It taught me that I had to find value in myself.”

Read ‘U.S. needs estimated $4.5 trillion in stimulus to recover, analysis argues” at Yahoo.

Read “Red Flags for Economy as Retail Sales Fall for a Second Month” at New York Times

Read ““A Ray of Sunshine in a Dark Time”: A Look at ‘Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President’” at Relix.

Internationalities:

Read: (Canada) “Federal government to pay for COVID-19 vaccine costs as Canada’s death toll surpasses 13K.”

Read “Treasury breached by hackers backed by foreign government - sources” at Reuters.

Read “Australia: NSW man charged over allegedly corrupt betting on table tennis” at BBC.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Fox News poll: Majority say US worse off than it was 4 years ago” at The Hill.

Read “House Democrat says 126 Republicans backing Texas election challenge shouldn't be seated” at Washington Examiner.

Read “Chris Christie calls Trump's legal team's legal theory an 'absurdity'“ at The Hill.

Read “Georgia Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Last-Minute Request To Toss Election Results” at Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Read “Joe Biden picks Pete Buttigieg to be transportation secretary” at CNN.

Read “McConnell urges GOP senators not to object to Electoral College vote” at The Hill.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Rep. Katie Porter Exposes 'Corruption In Real Time' After McConnell's Attempts To Tank Relief Bill” at Comic Sands.

Read ‘GOP Lawmakers in Missouri Propose Bills Making It Legal to Hit Protesters With Cars” at Newsweek.

Read “USPS Finally Releases Louis DeJoy’s Calendar — And Everything’s Redacted” at Huff Post.

Read “At This Trump-Favored Charity, Financial Reporting Is Questionable and Insiders Are Cashing In” at Pro Publica.

Read “The CARES Act Sent You a $1,200 Check but Gave Millionaires and Billionaires Far More” at Pro Publica.

Music-Related News and Such:

2020 Year-End Lists (* = New This Week):

  • Browse “Brad's Top 50 Albums of 2020” at Amoeba Music.

  • Browse “Aquarium Drunkard :: 2020 Year In Review.” *

  • Browse AV Club’s picks for “The 20 best albums of 2020.” *

  • Browse Bandcamp’s picks for “The Best Soul of 2020.”

  • Browse Clash’s “Clash Albums Of The Year 2020.” *

  • Browse “Top 30 Metal + Hard Rock Albums of 2020” at Consequence of Sound.

  • Browse Crack’s picks for “The Top Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse The Fader’s picks for “The 50 best albums of 2020.” *

  • BrowseGlide’s 20 Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Ted Goia’s picks for “The One Hundred Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Gorilla Vs. Bear’s Albums of 2020.

  • Browse the New Yorker’s picks for “The Best Music of 2020” (topped by a 2018 album which I can get behind).'

  • Browse the New York Times’ picks for the “Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse NPR’s picks for “The 100 Best Songs Of 2020.”

  • Browse NPR’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2020.”

  • Browse Paste’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “The 30 Best Electronic Music Releases of 2020.”

  • Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “The 100 Best Songs of 2020.”

  • Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums of 2020.” *

  • Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “The 35 Best Rock Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “The 20 Best Music Videos of 2020.”

  • Browse “Tunes that kept The World spinning in 2020: A playlist” at PRI. *

  • Browse Stereogum’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2020”.

  • Browse Time’s picks for “The 10 Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Treble’s picks for the “Top 100 Songs of 2020.”

  • Browse Treble’s picks for the “Top 50 Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse “The 2020 Uproxx Music Critics Poll.” *

  • Browse Vice’s picks for “The 100 Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Vinyl Factory’s picks for their “favourite vinyl artwork and packaging of 2020.”

  • Browse Yardbarker’s picks for “The 30 best albums of 2020.”

Read “Family affair: Tengger reunite after Covid enforced separation” at The Wire.

Read “FKA twigs sues Shia LaBeouf, alleges sexual battery and assault in new interview” at The Fader.

  • Read “Sia Says ‘Pathological Liar’ Shia LaBeouf ‘Conned’ Her ‘Into an Adulterous Relationship’” at Spin.

  • Read “What We Know About the Domestic Abuse Allegations Against Shia LaBoeuf” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Harold Budd's Music Was Heaven On Earth” at NPR.

Read “Rapper Lil Wayne pleads guilty to illegal gun possession” at The Hill.

Read “Streaming payments 'threaten the future of music,' says Elbow's Guy Garvey” at BBC.

Read/Listen to “How independent musicians are planning for 2021” at MarketPlace.

Read “‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ Drummer Jerry Granelli :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview” at Aquarium Drunkard (REPOST).

Browse “A Visual History of The Rolling Stones Documented in a Beautiful, 450-Page Photo Book by Taschen” at Open Culture.

Browse The Ringer’s picks for “The Top 100 Albums in the Rick Rubin Extended Universe, Ranked.”

Read “An Update on Bandcamp Fridays” at Bandcamp.

Read “Chance the Rapper Says He and Dionne Warwick Are Working on New Music on ‘Colbert’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “H.C. McEntire Delivers Her Masterpiece with 'Eno Axis'“ at Pop Matters.

Read “Emily Eavis says Glastonbury is “a long way” from being able to confirm 2021 festival” at NME.

Read “6 Paths Through Jazz in 2020” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Carlos Santana Launches New Coffee Company” at Jambands.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “The Best Films of 2020” at Flood Magazine.

Books/Reading/Authors

Browse “Christianity Today’s 2021 Book Awards.”

Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “Our 15 Favorite Music Books of 2020.”

Design/Artsy Things:

Take “a Close Look at Basquiat’s Revolutionary Art in a New 500-Page, 14-Pound, Large Format Book by TASCHEN” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “‘Cat scratch’ fever may cause human madness, study says” at New York Post.

Read “Kangaroos Can Learn To Communicate With Humans, Researchers Say” at Huff Post.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Mysterious Radio Signal Is Coming From Inside Our Galaxy, Scientists Announce” at Independent.

The Weekly Town Crier (12/11/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (12/11/20).



We’ll Miss You:

Read “Chuck Yeager, 1st to break sound barrier, dead at 97” at KREM.

Read “Howard Wales on Jerry Garcia, ‘Hooteroll?’ and Beyond” at Relix. “On December 7, 2020 keyboard iconoclast Howard Wales passed away. Here is a look back at our 2017 piece on Wales.”

Read “US composer Harold Budd dies aged 84” at The Guardian.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Senator Manchin, Your Faith Teaches You Better Than This” at The Nation by William J Barber II.

Read “Thomas Jefferson Tried to ‘Fix’ the Bible. He Only Succeeded in Making It Sad.” at Christianity Today.

Read “Southern Baptists Keep Quarreling Over Critical Race Theory” at Christianity Today.

Read “Disgraced Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz might get payoff despite ‘multiple affairs’” at Page Six.

  • Read “The Rise and Fall of Carl Lentz, the Celebrity Pastor of Hillsong Church” at New York Times.

  • Read “The Crisis of Christian Celebrity” by David French at The Dispatch.

  • Read “The sad irony of celebrity pastors” at The Spectator. “Instead of making me want to become more like them, it looks very much as if they want to become more like me.”

  • Read “The Celebrity Pastor Problem Is Every Church’s Struggle” at Christianity Today.

Read “St. John Paul II Did Not Change Catholic Teaching on Capital Punishment: A Reply to E. Christian Brugger” at Public Discourse.

Read “Looted Nazi Art Again Before Supreme Court” at NPR.

Read “Black pastor leads his white North Carolina church toward a fuller reckoning of race” at Religion News Service.

Read “It’s time to end ‘name and shame’ religious freedom policy” at Religion News Service. ”President-elect Biden and his foreign policy aides need to focus on a broader strategy of religious engagement.”

Read “In Which I Stop Saving Myself for Marriage” at Fathom.

Read “Church in The Woodlands where woman was abused will not face repercussions from SBC” at Houston Chronicle.

Read “New Labor Department rule expands religious exemption for federal contractors” at Religion News Service.

Read “The Mandalorian’ is an indictment of holy wars, and a celebration of pluralism” at Religion News Service.

Read “Leonard Cohen on Christianity” by David Dark.

Read “Sacred Tension: Overcoming the Faith Cartel with David Dark” at Stephen Bradford.

Read “The Decline of the Christian Consensus” at National Review.

Read “With vaccines on the horizon, faith leaders could play a crucial role in promoting their use” at Religion News Service.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “The House Just Voted to Decriminalize Weed” at Vice. “In a historic first, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to end the federal ban on cannabis. Senate Republicans are unlikely to take it up.”

  • Read “Matt Gaetz warns GOP that arguments against legalizing marijuana increasingly unpopular” at The Hill.

  • Read ‘Why So High? More Than Half the Cost to Legalize Weed in VA Goes to Police, Report Says.” at Dogwood.

Read “Leader of the Pro-Black ‘NFAC’ Militia Arrested and Charged by Feds” at Vice. “John Fitzgerald Johnson, aka Grand Master Jay, could get up to 20 years for pointing his gun at authorities.”

Read “Gun violence has become a disturbing public health crisis. The Biden administration must step in and immediately do something about it” at Business Insider.

Read “This Is the Case That Could Bring Down Roe v. Wade” at Vice. “Amy Coney Barrett has only been a Supreme Court justice for a few weeks, and she’s already facing a test on abortion.”

Read “14 Fort Hood soldiers fired, suspended over violence at base” at Associated Press.

Read “Michael Flynn judge says pardon doesn’t mean ex-national security adviser is innocent” at Washington Post.

Read “Black Michigan Lawmaker Got Racist Threats for Calling Out Giuliani's Lies” at Vice.

Read “U.S. Justice Department To Investigate Killing Of Casey Goodson Jr.” at WOSU.

Read “DC attorney general sends cease-and-desist letter to DoorDash over premium service” at The Hill.

Read “6 Dark Places Aleister Crowley Performed His Particular Brand of Magick” at Atlas Obscura.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Virginia Military Institute Removes Confederate ‘Stonewall’ Jackson Statue” at Huff Post.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Hong Kong police arrest 8 activists over anti-government protests” at The Hill.

Read “Portland mayor authorizes ‘all lawful means’ to clear protesters from occupied area on Mississippi Ave.” at Oregon Public Broadcasting.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Law Enforcement Took More Stuff From People Than Burglars Did Last Year” at Washington Post.

Read “Hartford detective demoted, suspended for suggesting bet on first homicide of 2021” at NBC News. “The Hartford police chief said the text "represents an appalling lack of judgment" and "an extreme insensitivity toward our community."

Read “Providing police with military gear does not reduce crime or protect officers” at ABC News.

Read “The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years. I Know Because I’m One of Them” at Pro Publica.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Paradise Valley Superintendent Dr. Jesse Welsh and his family harassed, threatened over school closures” at ABC 15.

Read “Jill Biden to advocate for debt-free community college as next first lady” at The Hill.

Read “Male Texas teen suspended from school for wearing nail polish” at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Oregon doctor's license revoked over refusal to wear mask during pandemic” at NBC News.

Read “Trump announces Rudy Giuliani has Covid” at NBC News.

  • Read “Witness Mellissa Carone says she's not self-quarantining after Giuliani's COVID-19 diagnosis” at The Hill.

  • Read “Giuliani from hospital calls COVID-19 'a curable disease'“ at The Hilli.

Read “Tipped Service Workers Are More Vulnerable Amid Pandemic Harassment Spike” at NPR.

Listen to “Wrecking Public Trust” at The Gist. “Those who downplayed the virus because their brand is contrarianism have greatly damaged our ability to recover.”

Listen to “Anti-Vax Ideas Have Metastasized in 2020” at WNYC.

  • Read “Vaccine opponents rebrand as rollout of Covid-19 shots looms” at Politico.

Read “A whistleblower says the FDA isn’t properly regulating vaccine facilities” at PBS News Hour.

Read/Listen to “Iris Meda Came Out Of Retirement To Teach Nursing. She Died Of COVID-19 After Exposure From Student” at WBUR.

Read ‘Wyoming Governor Issues Statewide Mask Mandate” at Wall Street Journal.

Read ‘Canada preparing to administer COVID-19 vaccine this month” at The Hill.

Read “Arizona legislature shuts down after Giuliani tests positive for coronavirus” at The Hill.

  • Read “'Cowardly' say some Arizona Republicans of their leaders following closure of Legislature” at AZ Central.

Read “Yes, some Americans may be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine but not by the federal government” at USA Today.

Read “How were COVID-19 vaccines made so fast? Scientists had a huge head start” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “How big could a COVID baby bust be?” at Market Place.

Read “Arizona Businesses Navigating Liability Issues Related To COVID-19” at KJZZ.

Read “Ohio club cited for Covid violations after 500 people attend indoor Trey Songz concert” at NBC News.

Read “COVID-19 hospitalizations exploded the week of Nov. 6. They still haven't slowed down” at 12 News.

Read “Pastor Celebrates COVID Outbreak at Church: “THE FAVOR OF GOD IS ON THIS HOUSE!”” at Patheos.

Read “West Wing fears COVID spread after Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis attends WH party” at Axios.

Read “Americans Aren’t Actually Quarantining” at The Atlantic.

Read/Listen to “Boston Reverend Enlists Dr. Fauci To Help Black Community Get Behind COVID-19 Vaccine” at WBUR.

Read “The Danger of Assuming That Family Time Is Dispensable” at The Atlantic. “Americans who are desperate to see their loved ones need advice that goes beyond “Just say no.”

Read “The FDA says Pfizer’s Covid vaccine is safe and effective. But trial participants warn of intense symptoms after second shot” at NBC New York.

Read “'How a picture of my foot became anti-vaccine propaganda'“ at BBC.

Read “'A slap in the face': Yuma hospital fires ER doctor for talking about COVID-19” at AZ Central.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Browse “20 Diversion Tactics Highly Manipulative Narcissists, Sociopaths And Psychopaths Use To Silence You” at Thought Catalog.

Read “Chick-fil-A Sues Poultry Suppliers, Alleging Price-Fixing” at Wall Street Journal. “Lawsuit adds one of the U.S. chicken industry’s biggest customers to expanding litigation that alleges long-running collusion among poultry processors.”

Read “Guy Fieri, the Fundraiser of Flavortown” at Bloomberg. “Guy Fieri has raised $21.5 million for unemployed restaurant workers, which means Guy Fieri has done more for unemployed restaurant workers than Congress has in the last 8 months.”

Read “Breakdancing to become an Olympic sport, will debut at Paris in 2024” at Boston Globe.

Read “Uber, After Years of Trying, Is Handing Off Its Self-Driving Car Project” at New York Times.

Read “The FTC is suing Facebook to unwind its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp” at The Verge.

Read “Time Nominates “Racial Justice Movement” As Person Of The Year” at Okay Player.

Read “Disney Increases Layoff Plans to 32,000 Employees in First Half of 2021” at Variety.

Internationalities:

Read “How will US President-elect Biden deal with Iran?” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Iran Says Scientist Was Killed Using Satellite-Controlled Gun” at Bloomberg.

Read “Argentina passes new tax on wealthiest people to pay for cost of coronavirus pandemic” at BBC.

Read “Greek police detain dozens to stop march in memory of slain teen” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Senior Saudi Prince Blasts Israel at Security Conference” at Bloomberg.

Read “Major Jewish Group Joins Fight Against Trump’s Massive Middle East Weapons Sale” at Huff Post.

Read “Mexican president proposes stripping immunity from US agents” at The Hill.

Read “Civilians killed in air strikes in Afghanistan soars by more than 300%” at BBC.

Read “Denmark apologises to children taken from Greenland in a 1950s social experiment” at BBC.

Read “Archaeologists find vast network of Amazon villages laid out like the cosmos” at Live Science.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Barr Is Said to Be Weighing Whether to Leave Before Trump’s Term Ends” at New York Times.

Read “Biden will pick California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead Health and Human Services” at NBC News.

Read “Biden picks retired general Lloyd Austin to run Pentagon” at Politico.

Read “Trump’s Election Attack Ends December 14—Whether He Knows It or Not” at Wired.

  • Read “Trump's election push causing long-term damage, experts say” at The Hill.

  • Read “Arizona GOP Dragged After Suggesting Trump Will Be 'Inaugurated for His Second Term' on January 20th” at Second Nexus.

Read “Today marks an important Electoral College deadline. Here's why that's bad news for Trump” at USA Today.”

Read “Deficit climbs 25 percent to $430 billion through November” at The Hill.

Read “Biden's Victory Cemented As States Reach Key Electoral College Deadline” at NPR.

Read “Mitch McConnell is destroying the case for Georgia’s GOP senators” at Washington Post.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Pompeo spent over $40,000 in taxpayer funds for State Dept dinners” at The Hill.

Read “Trump Trade Adviser Violated Hatch Act With Biden Attacks, Watchdog Says” at Huff Post.

Read “ER doctor who criticized Trump's actions to be removed from Walter Reed schedule” at CBS News. “Dr. James Phillips, the emergency room physician who publicly criticized President Trump's decision to drive with Secret Service agents to greet supporters while he was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October, has been removed from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center's schedule starting in January, according to sources familiar with the situation.”

Read “Armed Mexicans Were Smuggled In to Guard Border Wall, Whistle-Blowers Say” at New York Times.

Read “Agents raid home of ousted Florida health scientist who accused state of manipulating data” at The Hill.

  • Read “Republican lawyer resigns appointed state post over treatment of data analyst” at Miami Herald.

  • Read “Florida’s justification for raiding COVID data whistleblower Rebekah Jones is looking a little shaky” at The Verge.

This week in the GOP Election Kerfuffle:

  • Read “Election Lawsuits Withdrawn Under Threat Of Sanctions” at KJZZ.

  • Read “Cruz offers to argue Pennsylvania election case before Supreme Court” at The Hill.

  • Read “Texas sues states Biden won in Supreme Court, seeking to delay Electoral College vote” at The Hill.

  • Read “Trump Asked Pennsylvania House Speaker About Overturning His Loss” at New York Times.

  • Read “Hobbs Begins Recovering Taxpayers' Funds From AZGOP For Defending Trump Election Challenges; Gloves Come Off” at AZ Law.

  • Read “US Supreme Court rebuffs attempt to block Biden’s win in Pennsylvania” at Financial Times.

Read “1,500 Attorneys Call On Bar Associations To Condemn Trump Campaign Lawyers” at Huff Post.

Read ‘More voters say pardons for Trump's family would be inappropriate” at The Hill.

Read “After Democrats flip state, Georgia moves to shut down early voting locations ahead of Senate runoff” at Salon.

Read “Trump Roasted For Bragging That 'Bookies' Favoring Him On Election Night Is Proof That He Won” at Comic Sands.

Read “Rush Limbaugh Says Conservative States Are 'Trending Toward Secession' From U.S.” at Newsweek.

Read “The GOP Abandons Democracy” at The Atlantic. “One hundred and six members of Congress, and 18 state attorneys general, are asking the Supreme Court to overturn the election.”

Music-Related News and Such:

2020 Year-End Lists:

  • Browse “Brad's Top 50 Albums of 2020” at Amoeba Music.

  • Browse Bandcamp’s picks for “The Best Soul of 2020.”

  • Browse “Top 30 Metal + Hard Rock Albums of 2020” at Consequence of Sound.

  • Browse Crack’s picks for “The Top Albums of 2020.”

  • BrowseGlide’s 20 Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Ted Goia’s picks for “The One Hundred Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Gorilla Vs. Bear’s Albums of 2020.

  • Browse the New Yorker’s picks for “The Best Music of 2020” (topped by a 2018 album which I can get behind).'

  • Browse the New York Times’ picks for the “Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse NPR’s picks for “The 100 Best Songs Of 2020.”

  • Browse NPR’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2020.”

  • Browse Paste’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “The 30 Best Electronic Music Releases of 2020.”

  • Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “The 100 Best Songs of 2020.”

  • Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Stereogum’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2020”.

  • Browse Time’s picks for “The 10 Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Treble’s picks for the “Top 100 Songs of 2020.”

  • Browse Treble’s picks for the “Top 50 Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Vice’s picks for “The 100 Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Vinyl Factory’s picks for their “favourite vinyl artwork and packaging of 2020.”

  • Browse Yardbarker’s picks for “The 30 best albums of 2020.”

Browse “The 2020 No Depression Guide to Holiday Music That Doesn’t Suck.”

Read “So, How Was Your 2020, Thurston Moore?’ at Rolling Stone. “Former Sonic Youth singer and guitarist reflects on the music, books, TV, and movies that helped him get through this year.”

Browse “The 35 Best Lesser-Known Artists of the Last 35 Years, Picked by 35 Well-Known Artists” at Spin.

Read “The Cultural Impact of the Technics SL-1200 Turntable, Then and Now” at Discogs.

Read “Why You Should Listen to John Fahey’s Christmas Music—Even If You Hate Christmas Music” at Pitchfork.

Read (and listen to) “Frozen Fingers :: An American Primitive Holiday Meditation” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Browse Louder Sound’s picks for “The 50 Greatest Live Albums Ever.”

Read “‘Gimme Shelter’ at 50: How The Rolling Stones Got Conquered By America” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Here’s The Story Of The 1970s Most Forgotten Funk Star” at Okay Player.

Read “Bob Dylan Sells Songwriting Catalog to Universal Music Publishing” at Pitchfork.

  • Read “Wait, Bob Dylan Owned ‘The Weight’? An Explainer” at Rolling Stone. “In selling his own catalog to Universal Music, Dylan also sold the publishing rights of the Band’s first album Music From Big Pink — thanks to a peculiar arrangement that goes back to 1967.”

  • Read “Bob Dylan’s Overlooked Christian Music” at Sojourners.

Read “Sinéad O’Connor Announces Memoir Rememberings” at Pitchfork.

Browse “An introduction to Don Cherry in 10 records” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Neil Young Drops Lawsuit Against Donald Trump Campaign” at Pitchfork.

Read “Fiona Apple Explains How She Ended Up On Bob Dylan’s New Album And The “Tramp Stamp” She Got For David Blaine” at Stereogum.

Read “Kanye West’s Sunday Service Choir Is Suing Him For $1 Million For Unpaid Wages” at The Jasmine Brand.

Read “Without Music, I Wouldn’t Have Been Able to Navigate My Breakups” at Vice.

Read “Ethan Hawke On How Music Shaped His Film Career” at Pitchfork.

Read “‘Take Five’ Is Impeccable. ‘Time Outtakes’ Shows How Dave Brubeck Made It.” at New York Times.

Read “Fiona Apple on How She Broke Free and Made the Album of the Year” at Pitchfork.

Read “Pharrell Discovered His Synesthesia Listening To A Tribe Called Quest” at Okay Player.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Why an All-Streaming Movie World Won’t Look Like You Think It Will” at Variety.

Read “Netflix says it won't add disclaimer to 'The Crown'“ at The Hill.

Read “Mario Lopez plays sexy Colonel Sanders in Lifetime movie, because it's 2020” at CNet.

Read “Culture Clash: Warner Bros.’ HBO Max Move Signals New Day in Hollywood” at Variety.

Browse Vulture’s picks for the “Best Movies of 2020.”

Read “John Mulaney and Andy Samberg are your new Chip 'N Dale, we guess” at AV Club.

Read “‘Moana: The Series’ Set for 2023 on Disney Plus” at Variety.

Read “John Lurie Returns to TV in New HBO Series ‘Painting With John’” at Variety.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Yes, Roald Dahl was a Jew-hater” at Religion News Service. “The family of the late British novelist and screenwriter has given the Jewish people an early Hanukkah gift: an apology.”

Browse Los Angeles Times’ picks for “The Ten Best Books of 2020.”

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “What is the largest desert on earth?” at Universal Sci.

Read “Everest Gets an Altitude Adjustment: Nepal and China Agree on Height” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “A New Report Says Microwave Attacks Caused Mystery Illnesses In US Diplomats. Scientists Say That Makes No Sense” at Buzzfeed News.

Read “So You Think You Know Gravity? Let Us Drop Some Knowledge” at Wired.

Read “Former Israeli military leader opens up about contact with "Galactic Federation" of aliens” at Boing Boing.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Giant Penis Sculpture Disappears from German Mountaintop” at Vice.

Read “Mysterious Monolith Update: Racists Destroy California Monolith, Proclaim Christ Superior to Space Aliens” at Vice.

Read “How a Young Eagle Huntress Kicks Butt at a Kazakh Tradition” at Atlas Obscura.

Local:

Read “Effort To Recall Ducey Gains Unlikely Support From Paul Gosar” at KJZZ.

Read “'Shut the hell up': Arizona GOP at war over Trump's election loss” at MSNBC.

Read “Arizona gets $1.4 million in nationwide settlement with a mortgage servicer” at KTAR.

The Weekly Town Crier (12/04/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (12/04/20).



We’ll Miss You:

Read “Darth Vader actor David Prowse has died at 85” at The Verge.

Read ‘‘Mad Max’ villain Hugh Keays-Byrne has died” at NME.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Ruling Striking Down Limits on Religious Services Shows Trump Effect on Supreme Court” at Slate.

Read “Is Healing Even Possible?” at The Atlantic. “In an extended interview, the Reverend William J. Barber II explains why healing the soul of the nation will take more than returning to “normal.”

Read “Most ‘Fox News Republicans’ believe Christians face most discrimination” at Religion News Service.

Read (Russel) “Moore presented with Defending Religious Freedom Award” at Kentucky Today.

Read “Churches return land to Indigenous groups as part of #LandBack movement” at Religion News Service.

Read “Lawsuit: LDS Church officials, teacher knew of abuse but kept silent” at AZ Central.

Read “Seminary presidents reaffirm BFM, declare CRT incompatible” at Baptist Press.

  • Read “Southern Baptist seminary presidents reaffirm their commitment to whiteness” at The Witness.

Read “How Prison Ministry Inspired an All-Female Audio Bible” at Christianity Today.

Read “Faith takes the forefront as Georgia Senate runoffs heat up” at Associated Press.

Read “Eric Metaxas and the losing of the evangelical mind” at Religion News Service. “Christians can’t wait for the sociologists to sort out why our fellow congregants believe in ‘Q’ or that Trump won the election. We need a strategy to restore a few basic truths.”

  • Read “How Eric Metaxas went from Trump despiser to true believer” at Religion News Service. “How a one-time aspiring public intellectual and Trump doubter turned into a true believer in stolen elections.”

Read “Three ways to create sacred moments at home this Advent” at Christian Century.

Read “Why Some Evangelicals Refuse To Acknowledge That Trump Has Lost The Election” at Huff Post.

Read “In leaked call, Hillsong founder Brian Houston details ‘narcissistic’ Carl Lentz’s firing” at Religion News Service.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “New rule could allow gas, firing squads for US executions” at AP News.

Read “Man receives racist note after putting up Black Santa decoration” at The Hill.

Read “Restructuring A World Without Prisons” at Sojourners. “Making the impossible possible calls for an exercise in radical imagination.”

Read “Ex-Arizona Official Gets Six Years for Smuggling Pregnant Women Into U.S. to Sell Their Babies” at MSN.

Read “President Trump's war on immigration takes on political overtone at Supreme Court” at USA Today.

Read “Supreme Court skeptical of Trump's plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census” at NBC News.

Read “French government drops draft law curbing filming of police” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Inside a Neo-Nazi Terror Cell as it Reckons with FBI Arrests” at Vice.

  • Read “How One Man Built a Neo-Nazi Insurgency in Trump's America” at Vice. “This is the inside story of how Rinaldo Nazzaro built the Base, a neo-Nazi terror organization—and how it all came apart.”

  • Read “For Some, Joining the Proud Boys Was a Stop on the Way to Neo-Nazi Terror” at Vice. “Several members and a recruit to the neo-Nazi terror group the Base described the Proud Boys as part of the journey into far-right extremism.”

Read “Bill that could help Black farmers reclaim millions of acres 'a step in the right direction'“ at ABC News.

Read “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Ghosts of Segregation” at New York Times.

Read “Harris County GOP chairman who made racist Facebook post resigns” at The Hill.

Read “DeSantis wants to make ‘Stand Your Ground’ a license to kill vandals in Florida” at Orlando Sentinel.

Read “'Tiger King' star Joe Exotic formally requests pardon, including handwritten letter to Trump” at USA Today.

Read “Black Children Are Six Times More Likely to Be Shot to Death by Police” at Equal Justice Initiative.

Read “The U.S. Spent $11.6B to Stop Cocaine Trafficking. It Was a Massive Failure” at Vice.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Kentucky cop slugs man livestreaming an arrest with ‘solid left hook’” at New York Post.

Read “How America’s deadliest serial killer went undetected for more than 40 years” at Washington Post.

Read “Phoenix approves $3 million payout to family of man fatally shot in the back by police” at AZ Central.

Read “US: No Justice 6 Months Since New York Police Assault” at Human Rights Watch.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Teaching in the Pandemic: This is not sustainable” at New York Times.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “The Unexpected Message Revealed by Long Lines for Virus Testing” at New York Times.

Read “Rhode Island is shutting bars and gyms But leaving schools open Because that's what the data suggests we should do” at Washington Post.

Read “The NFL’s Thanksgiving Weekend Has Become a Covid Crisis” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Larry Fitzgerald tests positive for COVID-19” at 12 News.

Read “In Europe’s Nursing Homes, a Soaring Covid-19 Death Toll and the Pain of Isolation” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “The Yankee Candle phenomenon” at Boing Boing.

Read “Coronavirus Hospitalizations Are at an All-Time High” at Vice.

Read ‘How The Coronavirus Has Affected Individual Members Of Congress” at NPR.

Read “Pope Blasts Those Who Criticize COVID Restrictions in the Name of “Personal Freedom”” at Slate.

Read “Moderna Chief Medical Officer: ‘Once there is marketing authorization, we stand ready to distribute our vaccine’” at MSNBC.

Read “Arizona School, Business Leaders Concerned About Spread Of COVID-19” at KJZZ.

Read “Articles of impeachment filed against GOP Ohio governor over coronavirus orders” at The Hill.

Read ‘Canada not ready to lift border restrictions with US as COVID-19 spikes” at The Hill.

Read “How Safe Is Eating At A Restaurant During The COVID-19 Pandemic?” at Huff Post.

Read “CDC urges Americans not to travel for Christmas” at The Hill.

Read “Why nursing home aides exposed to COVID-19 aren’t taking sick leave at The Conversation.

ReadCoronavirus: Here's how you can stop bad information from going viral” at BBC

Read “The Majority Of Children Who Die From COVID-19 Are Children Of Color” at NPR.

Read “Italy bans Christmas travel between regions” at BBC.

Read “Iowa Is What Happens When Government Does Nothing” at The Atlantic. “The story of the coronavirus in the state is one of government inaction in the name of freedom and personal responsibility.”

Read “What the CDC’s New Quarantine Guidelines Mean for You” at Slate.

Read “City of Phoenix halts sports facility reservations as coronavirus cases rise” at KTAR.

Read “Covid Shrinks the Labor Market, Pushing Out Women and Baby Boomers” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “COVID-19 Will Change How We Age, Where We Age And How We Pay For It” at WBUR.

Read “Fauci: 'I don't socialize. It's my wife and I and the federal agents'“ at The Hill.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Family Caregivers In Arizona Are Struggling With Burnout And Isolation During COVID-19” at KJZZ.

Read “Ikea Will Buy Back the Furniture You No Longer Want and Recycle or Resell It” at Global Citizen.

Read “OAN Is So Dangerous Because It Looks Like a Real News Channel” at Vice.

Read “Man caught with nearly 4 tons of stolen sewer lids in pickup truck, cops say” at CWB Chicago.

Read “The Crown Doesn't Fully Explain Why Princess Diana Was So Popular. Here's How She Became a Global Celebrity” at Time.

Read “‘Time For My Flag to Go Up’: How Anti-Trumpers Are Reclaiming the American Flag” at Politico.

Read “'The Real Looting in America Is the Walton Family': GAO Report Details How Taxpayers Subsidize Cruel Low Wages of Corporate Giants” at Common Dreams.

Read “IRS Says Its Own Error Sent $1,200 Stimulus Checks To Non-Americans Overseas” at NPR.

Read “Microsoft files patent to record and score meetings on body language” at BBC.

Read “Facial recognition is getting better at making matches around face masks’ at CNET.

Read “Facebook Content Review Board Chooses First Six Cases for Review” at Bloomberg. “Oversight Board has picked the first six cases it will review to determine whether the company took appropriate action with controversial content.”

Read “Airbnb Sets IPO Terms Sending Valuation as High as $35 Billion” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “UCLA Paid Student Workers With Amazon Gift Cards” at Vice.

Read I'm an 'LSD Specialist' Who Sells Acid to Oxford University Students” at Vice. "I’m not really in it for the money. If I was, I’d probably sell something like ketamine."

Read “Elliot Page Announces He is Transgender” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “How To Fix A Food System That Wasn’t Designed To Feed People” at Huff Post.

Read “The Justice Department is suing Facebook for side-stepping visa rules” at The Verge.

Read “This ‘Magical Bug’ Exposed Any iPhone in a Hacker's Wi-Fi Range” at Wired.

Read “The Latest OnlyFans Drama Involves a YouTuber Posting a Video of Herself As a Toddler” at Vulture.

Internationalities:

Read “Suspected North Korean Hackers Target COVID-19 Vaccine Maker AstraZeneca” at HuffPost.

Read “Israel, US planning ‘covert ops’ against Iran as Trump’s term ends, report says” at Times of Israel.

Read “How Iranian scientist’s killing could derail future US-Iran talks” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Government ready for 100 per cent increase in Hong Kong citizens coming to UK” at Telegraph.

Read “Canada bans mass exports of prescription drugs” at BBC.

Read “Assassination in Iran Could Limit Biden’s Options. Was That the Goal?” at New York Times.

Read “Eviction of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah part of Israeli policy” at Al Jazeera.

Read “US sanctions Chinese company for conducting business with Maduro regime” at The Hill.

Read “Japan Puts Its Post-Covid Tourism Hopes In Hands Of Giant Robot” at Huff Post.

Read “Homes raided after Germany bans far-right group” at The Hill.

Read “An anti-gay Hungarian politician has resigned after being caught by the police fleeing a 25-man orgy through a window” at Business Insider.

Read ‘Everyone Looks Terrible in the Grim China-Australia Twitter War” at Slate. “How a nation got trolled into publicizing its own war crimes.”

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Cuomo blames new conservative majority for high court's COVID-19 decision” at The Hill.

Read “NC donor wants millions returned after pro-Trump group drops election fraud cases” at News Observer.

Read “Joe Biden considering Cindy McCain for UK ambassador” at KTAR.

Read “Republicans ready to become deficit hawks again under a President Biden” at The Hill.

Read “Pennsylvania Supreme Court Throws Out Last Active Legal Challenge to State’s Election Results” at Slate.

Read “Carter Page sues over surveillance related to Russia probe” at The Hill.

Read “National Review Calls Out “Trump’s Disgraceful Endgame” at Hill Reporter.

Read “Biden hires all-female WH communications team” at MSNBC.

Read “Biden says he asked Fauci to be a chief medical adviser for incoming administration” at Boing Boing.

Read “Robert Lighthizer Blew Up 60 Years of Trade Policy. Nobody Knows What Happens Next.” at Pro Publica.

Read “The Pardon Power May Be Broad, But that Does Not Mean a Self-Pardon Would Be Legit” at Reason.

Read “More and More Republican Officials Are Standing Up to Trump and His Effort to Overturn the Election” at Slate.

Read “Barr: No evidence of fraud that’d change outcome of presidential election” at WUSA9.

Read “Trump to boycott Biden’s inauguration — and won’t even invite him for White House visit” at The Raw Story.

Read “McCaskill: 'Hypocrisy' for GOP to target Biden nominee's tweets after Trump” at The Hill.

Read “The MAGA Coalition Rallying Behind Trump’s Post-Election Mischief Is Already Cracking” at Daily Beast.

Read “Most Americans support raising taxes on those making at least $400,000” at The Hill.

Read “How Is Trump’s Lawyer Jenna Ellis ‘Elite Strike Force’ Material?” at New York Times.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump’s Disinformation Campaign Threatens to Undermine the Government” at Time.

Read “20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump’s quest to overturn the election” at Washington Post.

Read “It's not the first time that an outgoing president refused to work with an incoming one” at Salon.

Read “Arizona Republicans Level More Allegations Of Election Fraud” at KJZZ.

Read “Kemp to Trump: Georgia law blocks him from ‘interfering’ with elections” at AJC.

Read “Trump and his allies won't drop claims of stolen election — because they're cashing in” at Salon.

Read “Trump blasts Ducey over election certification, says he betrayed Arizonans” at AZ Mirror.

Read “Bill Barr Hid Evidence Of A Bribery For Pardon Investigation During The Election” at Empty Wheel.

Read ‘Trump Has Discussed With Advisers Pardons for His 3 Eldest Children and Giuliani” at New York Times.

Read ‘'It has to stop': Georgia official calls on Trump to 'stop inspiring' death threats over election” at USA Today.

Read “Wisconsin Gov. Calls Trump Election Fraud Lawsuit An ‘Assault’” at Huff Post. “He is simply trying to seize Wisconsin’s electoral votes, even though he lost the statewide election,” attorneys say.

Read “Donald Trump’s Latest Grift May Be His Most Cynical Yet” at The New Yorker.

Read “White House liaison barred from DOJ after pressing for sensitive information” at The Hill.

Read “Wisconsin Supreme Court declines to hear Trump's "case"“ at Boing Boing.

Read “Ivanka Trump deposed Tuesday as part of inauguration fund lawsuit” at NBC News. “The suit claims the Inaugural Committee made improper payments to the president's hotel during his 2017 inauguration. Trump called the suit political.”

Read “David Perdue bought Pfizer stock — a week before company said it would develop a vaccine” at Salon.

Read “GOP Attorney Caught Illegally Registering to Vote in Georgia After Video of Him Urging Others to Do So Went Viral” at Second Nexus.

Read “Giuliani's witness draws audible laughter during testimony” at CNN.

Music-Related News and Such:

2020 Year-End Lists:

  • Browse “Brad's Top 50 Albums of 2020” at Amoeba Music.

  • Browse Crack’s picks for “The Top Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Ted Goia’s picks for “The One Hundred Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Gorilla Vs. Bear’s Albums of 2020.

  • Browse the New Yorker’s picks for “The Best Music of 2020” (topped by a 2018 album which I can get behind).'

  • Browse NPR’s picks for “The 100 Best Songs Of 2020.”

  • Browse NPR’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2020.”

  • Browse Paste’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums of 2020.”

  • Browse Stereogum’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2020”.

  • Browse Time’s picks for “The 10 Best Albums of 2020.”

Read “Music Legends Eric Clapton, Van Morrison Team for Anti-Lockdown Single ‘Stand and Deliver’” at Variety.

Read “Erykah Badu & Summer Walker Discuss Stardom, Aliens And More” at Okay Player.

Read “When Home Recording Hit the San Francisco Rock Scene” at Reverb.

Read “In Praise of Phoebe Bridgers, a Thoroughly Good Celebrity” at Slate.

Read “AC/DC Debuts at No. 1, Powered by CD Sales” at New York Times.

Read “Phish Frontman Trey Anastasio Raises Over $1 Million For New Drug Treatment Center” at Vanity Fair.

Read “Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein to Write and Direct New Heart Biopic” at Pitchfork.

Browse “Elvis Costello on the Music of His Life” at Pitchfork.

Read ‘Rivers Cuomo is selling thousands of old demos while learning how to code. Here’s his final class assignment” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Read “Phoenix producer Bob Hoag revisits a 'magical time' with the reissue of Pollen's 3rd album” at AZ Central.

Read “Warp Records Comes to Bandcamp” at Bandcamp.

Read ‘Why Arizona music icon Nils Lofgren's wife is 'not welcome' at this Scottsdale steakhouse” at AZ Central.

Read “Bob Dylan Just Released the Ultra-Rare 1970 ‘George Harrison Sessions’ Without Warning” at Rolling Stone. “The Bob Dylan – 50th Anniversary Collection 1970 was released as a super-limited set to avoid the recordings entering the public domain in Europe.”

Read “Justin Townes Earle’s Cause of Death Revealed” at Pitchfork.

Read ‘Deadicated: Trixie Garcia on Jerry’s Legacy, Garcia’s at The Cap and New Cannabis Brand” at Relix.

Listen to Neal Casal’s Final Solo Recordings” at Pitchfork. “The previously unfinished “Everything Is Moving” and “Green Moon” were completed by the late singer-songwriter’s friends and collaborators.”

Support the artists you listen to by buying their stuff” at Hype Machine. “Paste a link to a Spotify playlist (for ex. "Your Top Songs 2020"), and we’ll check what you can purchase directly from them on Bandcamp.”

Read “Pharrell Williams announces new charity Black Ambition to aid underrepresented entrepreneurs” at NME.

Read “Walt Disney Co. shutting down influential Radio Disney after two decades” at Los Angeles Times.

Browse “A Brief History of Cardigans in Music, From Kurt Cobain to Harry Styles and Taylor Swift” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Origin Story of Carlos Santana’s Abraxas” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Iggy Pop & Elvis Costello” at Rolling Stone. “The old friends on surviving the Seventies, why most hard rock is overrated, and staying in touch with their iconoclastic inspiration.”

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “David Lynch To Start Shooting Netflix Series (Working Title: “Wisteria”) In 2021 at Welcome To Twin Peaks.

Read “New-Streaming-Service Alert: Discovery+ Coming in 2021” at Vulture.

ReadSuperstore Is Closing After Six Seasons” at Vulture.

Read “Actors File Age Discrimination Suit Over SAG-AFTRA Health Plan Cuts” at NPR.

Read “Did HBO Max Just Kill Movie Theaters?” at Okay Player.

Read “'Masked Singer' hits highest rating for entertainment show since April” at Los Angeles Times.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Toni Morrison’s 1,200 Volume Personal Library is Going on Sale: Get a Glimpse of the Books on Her Tribeca Condo Shelves” at Open Culture.

Browse “NPR books NPR’s Book Concierge”.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Meet Congo the Chimp, London’s Sensational 1950s Abstract Painter” at Open Culture.

Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “For Rats That Coat Themselves In Poison, These Rodents Are Surprisingly Cuddly” at NPR.

Read “Scientists baffled by bizarre sea creature with dozens of legs found on beach” at Express.

Read “Wasps threaten airplane safety” at Boing Boing.

Read “New science tempers hope for life in Venus' clouds — but nothing is ruled out just yet” at Salon.

Read “Too Many Storms, Not Enough Names” at NPR.

Read “Huge Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope In Puerto Rico Collapses” at Huff Post.

Read “Ginkgo trees nearly went extinct. Here’s how we saved these ‘living fossils.’” at National Geographic.

Read “Australia’s Great Barrier Reef ‘critical’ due to climate change” at Al Jazeera.

Food Cultures:



Misc. Oddities:

Read “A Massive Collection of Dead Insects Lives Inside Filing Cabinets in a Canadian Office” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “That Mysterious Monolith in the Utah Desert? It’s Gone, Officials Say” at New York Times.

  • Read “New Mysterious Monolith Appears in Romania” at Vice.

  • Read “Photographers captured removal of the mysterious Utah monolith. Here's why it vanished” at USA Today.

  • Read “New mysterious monolith appears on top of mountain in California” at Independent.

Read “Dallas Restaurant Owner Seems More Concerned With Twerking Patrons Than Covid In Viral Video” at Okay Player.

Read “How camp explains Trump” at Yahoo.

Local:

Read “Recreational Marijuana: Everything you need to know about Arizona going green” at 12 News.

Read “Remember these people who defended the integrity of Arizona's election” at AZ Central.

Read “GM Rethinks Planned Stake In Phoenix-Based Electric Vehicle Maker Nikola” at KJZZ.

Read “Petersen sentencing looms on federal charges, and Arizona says it isn't part of any deal to cut prison time” at AZ Central.

Read “Tempe's Marquee Theatre postpones reopening as COVID cases spike. What you need to know” at AZ Central.

The Weekly Town Crier (11/27/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (11/27/20).


We’ll Miss You:

Read “David Dinkins, New York's first Black mayor, dies at 93” at CNN.

Read “Hal Ketchum Dies at 67 from Complications of Dementia: 'May His Music Live on Forever,' Says Wife” at People.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “What is the QAnon conspiracy theory?” at CBS News.

  • Read ‘A Game Designer’s Analysis Of QAnon” at Medium: Curioser Institute.

Read “He’s The Chosen One To Run America”: Inside The Cult of Trump, His Rallies Are Church And He Is The Gospel” at Vanity Fair.

Read “‘America, Nobody Can Serve God and the Military’” by David French.

Read ‘For Pilgrims, Thanksgiving Was a Way of Life” at Christianity Today.

Read “White Christians' voting patterns are an indictment of churches” at National Catholic Reporter.

Read “Poor People’s Campaign mourns 250K COVID deaths, calls for stimulus relief” at Religion News Service.

Read ‘This Will Change Your Life” at The Atlantic. “Why the grandiose promises of multilevel marketing and QAnon conspiracy theories go hand in hand.”

Read “Opinion Pope Francis: A Crisis Reveals What Is in Our Hearts” at New York Times.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old from Illinois charged with killing two people during a protest in Wisconsin, has posted a $2 million cash bond and has been released from custody.” at Associated Press.

  • Read “Kyle Rittenhouse’s Attorney Thanks Actor Ricky Schroder for Helping Post $2 Million Bail” at Variety.

Read “'Longest-serving cannabis offender' to be released early from 90-year prison sentence” at NBC News.

Read “Merrick Garland on list to be Biden's attorney general” at The Hill.

Read “Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups” at Vice.

Read “When It Comes to Race, White Evangelicals Have a Fox News Problem” by Jemar Tisby.

Read “Unite the Right organizer Kessler denied concealed handgun permit” at Daily Progress.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Phoenix City Council votes down creation of police oversight office” at KTAR.

Read “Former Mesa officer pleads not guilty to assault” at 12 News.

Read “Here's what interviewing voters taught me about the slogan 'defund the police'“ at The Guardian. “While 80% of my focus group agreed racism exists in the criminal justice, they are turned off by the slogan – even though they support cutting police funds.”

Read “Former Phoenix police officer 'secretly recorded' women during police stops” at ABC 15.

Read “What's next for Phoenix's 1st civilian review board for police after council hits brakes” at 12 News.

Read “Protests erupt in Omaha after police fatally shoot Black man during traffic stop” at NBC News.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “More GOP Senators Have COVID Than Have Acknowledged That Joe Biden Won” at Huff Post.

Read ‘Trump lawyers to avoid Michigan lawmaker meeting after COVID exposure” at Axios.

Read “Landmark case study finds coronavirus easily transmitted in ideal outdoor conditions” at USA Today.

Read “Donald Trump Jr. Has Coronavirus and Is in Isolation” at Slate.

Read “Why Are States Imposing Virus Curfews?” at New York Times.

Read “Airlines take another hit as CDC warns against Thanksgiving travel” at The Hill.

Read “Santa Claus is ‘immune’ to COVID-19, says Dr. Anthony Fauci” at New York Post.

Read “Ben Carson Says He Was 'Desperately Ill' With The Coronavirus” at NPR.

Read “The Secret Service Is Investigating 700 Cases of Covid Relief Fraud” at Wired.

Read ‘Fewer International Students at Christian Colleges” at Christianity Today. “COVID-19 causes decline, hurting CCCU campuses.”

Read “A Day in the Life of an Amazon Warehouse Worker” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Christmas Dies Hard” at The Atlantic. “The middle of a global pandemic might seem like a good time to cut back on holiday excess. But we live in America.”

Read “Wyoming’s governor has resisted calls for a mask mandate. Now he has the coronavirus” at Washington Post.

Read ‘Pope Francis criticizes people who refuse to wear masks” at CNN.

Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):

Read “Apple Seeks to Keep Secrets From Google In-House Lawyers” at Bloomberg.

Read ‘'Cake Boss' star says 'only time will tell' if he can bake again after injury” at 12 News.

Read “Trauma ran away with my childhood: Losing my father to violence forced me to grow up fast” at Salon. “Trauma is normal. So many of us in Baltimore never really get a chance to be young.”

Read “US Billionaires Have Increased Their Riches By $1 Trillion During the Pandemic” at Jacobin Magazine.

Read “Obama says some Republicans drive message that 'White men are victims'“ at Fox Propaganda.

Internationalities:

Read “Pompeo meets with Taliban delegation in Qatar after mortar barrage kills at least 8 in Kabul” at NBC News.

Read “The Uncertainties of Barack Obama” at Slate. “The former president’s remarkable memoir reveals how he grasped, and struggled with, the ambiguities of a complex world.”

Read “Farmers march: India farmers clash with police in protest march” at BBC.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Trump Tweets News That Was So Incorrect Tucker Carlson Had Already Apologized For It” at Comic Sands.

Read “GOP senator calls for cooperation on Biden transition: 'I'd rather have a president who has more than one day to prepare'“ at The HIll.

Read “Biden picks Alejandro Mayorkas for Homeland Security secretary” at Los Angeles Times.

Read the opinion piece “Trump, GOP’s ridiculous, flailing coup isn’t a joke. It’s a crime. There must be consequences” at Inquirer.

Read “Michigan election board votes to certify Biden win, dealing blow to Trump effort” at NBC News.

Read “Biden Picks Janet Yellen To Be Treasury Secretary” at NPR.

Read “The Economy’s Struggles Will Shape Joe Biden’s Presidency” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Dow hits 30,000 on start of transition to Biden, prospect of Yellen as treasury secretary” at NBC News.

Read “A good deed from the wicked witch?” at Salon. “Actually ending the war in Afghanistan.”

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump team looks to box in Biden on foreign policy by lighting too many fires to put out” at CNN.

Read “This Was Always the Plan” at The Dispatch. “President Trump telegraphed that he would try to steal the election if he didn’t win.”

Read “Michigan Republicans Abandon Their Effort to Block Election Results” at Mother Jones. “They reversed course at the last minute, thanks to an outpouring of Zoom protest.”

Read “It Actually Was a Landslide: 80 Million Votes and Counting For Biden” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Real Reason Trump’s Lawsuits Disproportionately Target Black and Latino Voters” at Slate.

Read “President Donald Trump’s campaign announced Tuesday that the Arizona Legislature would hold a public hearing on Nov. 30 about the election, but legislative leaders said they had not authorized any such meeting” at AZ Central.

Read “NRA admits some executives used nonprofit money for personal benefit” at The Hill.

Read “Georgia Senator David Perdue Privately Pushed for a Tax Break for Rich Sports Teamowners” at Pro Publica.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “BBC Set To Air New Fela Kuti Documentary ‘Fela Kuti: Father Of Afrobeat’” at Okay Player.

Read “Meet Shameika Stepney, Inspiration to Fiona Apple on Fetch the Bolt Cutters” at Pitchfork.

Read “Guitarist Snowy White on His Years With Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, and Thin Lizzy” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Watch Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff perform on ‘Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air’ reunion set” at NME.

Read “Album John Lennon Signed For Mark David Chapman Going Up For Auction” at Consequence of Sound.

Browse “An introduction to Parliament-Funkadelic in 10 records” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Sex Pistols star Johnny Rotten bitten by a flea after rescuing squirrels” at 1 News. “Johnny Rotten, real name John Lydon, has been bitten by a flea on his penis.”

Read “British Pianist Performs Concert For Thailand Monkeys — And It’s Bananas” at Huff Post.

Read “Ani DiFranco on ‘Revolutionary Love’ and Tending to Wounds” at No Depression.

Read “Trevor Noah to Host Grammys 2021” at Pitchfork.

Read “Why are so many bands selling the rights to their music to faceless companies?” at A Journal Of Musical Things.

Browse Treble’s picks for “18 Albums From 2020 You Might Have Missed.”

Browse Treble’s picks for the “25 Best Albums of 2020.”

Read “How a Japanese medical student and local businessman made one of the most coveted records of all time” at Vinyl Factory.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “How John Belushi Rose From Second City to ‘SNL’ to Stardom” at Variety.

Read “MSNBC to debut docuseries 'Obama'“ at The Hill.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “‘RS Interview: Special Edition’ With Ta-Nehisi Coates” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Penguin Random House Staff Confront Publisher About New Jordan Peterson Book” at Vice.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “The movement to restore the memory of Spain’s forgotten women artists” at PRI.

Science/Technology/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Facebook Struggles to Balance Civility and Growth” at New York Times.

Read “Not just lizards - alligators can regrow their tails too” at Eurekalert.

Read “Scientists accidentally discover Australian marsupials glow in the dark” at CNet.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “If You Left A Monolith In A Remote Utah Canyon, Authorities Would Like A Word” at Huff Post.

Read “400 years ago, visitors to this painted cave took hallucinogens” at National Geographic. “People at California’s Pinwheel Cave left evidence of their altered state literally stuffed into its walls—the first physical evidence for hallucinogenic consumption at a rock art site.”

Local:

Read “Arizona Unemployment Rate Increases To 8.0%” at KJZZ.

The Weekly Town Crier (11/20/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (11/20/20).

Religion and Stuff:

Read ‘The Evangelical Reckoning Begins” at The Atlantic. “Andy Stanley, the pastor of one of the largest megachurches in the country, ponders the future of an influential corner of American Christianity.”

Read “How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps” at Vice. “A Muslim prayer app with over 98 million downloads is one of the apps connected to a wide-ranging supply chain that sends ordinary people's personal data to brokers, contractors, and the military.”

Read “What the Study of Religion Can Teach Us About Psychedelics” at Harvard’s Bill of Health website.

Read as Christian Century wonders “How do we grieve the hundreds of thousands of people the COVID-19 pandemic has killed?”

Read “William Barr and the politics of death” at Religion News Service. “We are not executing the ‘worst of the worst,’ as some may believe, but the poorest of the poor, and disproportionately people of color.”

Read “Never the Same Twice: Grace and the (Divinely) Inspired World of Jazz” at Mockingbird.

Read “Vatican Launches Probe After Pope’s Insta Account Likes Very Risqué ‘School Girl’ Pic” at Daily Beast.

Read “Five faith facts about former President Barack Obama’s new book: ‘A Promised Land’ at Religion News Service.

Read “Pastors Launch Church-Planting Network for ‘Black and Brown Neighborhoods’” at Christianity Today.

Read “Chicago church releases a beer for Advent — and the end of the world” at Religion News Service.

Read “Carl Lentz and the ‘hot pastor’ problem” at Religion News Service. “Maybe the problem isn’t hot pastors like Lentz but a toxic megachurch culture that makes narcissism a prerequisite.”

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “The far right is cracking up, as their violent fantasies of Trump's fascist takeover evaporate” at Salon.

Read “University of California agrees to $73M sex abuse settlement over former UCLA gynecologist” at NBC News.

Read “Trump's legal adviser Jenna Ellis in 2016 called him an 'idiot' and said his supporters didn't care about 'facts or logic'“ at CNN.

Read “Rudy Giuliani Isn’t Even Trying to Make Coherent Legal Arguments Anymore” at Slate.

Read “Disturbing new details in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer” at ABC7 Chicago. “Disturbing new details in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer reveal their Plan B was to takeover the Michigan capitol building with 200 combatants, who would stage a week-long series of televised executions of public officials.”

Read “7 Ways Biden Could Go It Alone on Gun Violence Prevention” at The Trace.

Read “Make fun of the "Million MAGA March" all you want — white supremacy has not been defeated” at Salon.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Prosecutors say Chauvin kept his knee on teenager’s back for 17 minutes in 2017, while the boy said ‘I can’t breathe’” at Minnesota Reformer.

Read “ACLU, Activist Groups Denounce Prosecutions of Anti Police Brutality Protesters” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Suburban Milwaukee Police Officer Who Has Killed 3 People Since 2015 Set To Resign” at NPR.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “When Schools Closed, Americans Turned to Their Usual Backup Plan: Mothers” at New York Times.

Read “Nicola Sturgeon insists schools in Scotland must stay open even in level 4 lockdown areas” at Daily Record.

Read “Mississippi governor calls for spending $3 million on 'Patriotic Education Fund'“ at The Hill.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “More than 130 Secret Service officers are said to be infected with coronavirus or quarantining in wake of Trump’s campaign travel” at Washington Post.

Read “Super-spreading wedding party demonstrates COVID-19 risk posed by holiday gatherings” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Denver bar owner dies after second battle with COVID-19, cancer” at 9News.

Read “‘No One Is Listening to Us’” at The Atlantic. “More people than ever are hospitalized with COVID-19. Health-care workers can’t go on like this.”

Read ‘Utah Valley Hospital strained by conspiracy theorists trying to enter ICU” at KSL.

Read “Billionaire Medadoners Who Fought Wisconsin’s Plans To Contain Pandemic Get Infected At White House” at Milwaukee Independent.

Read “On Fox News, Dr. Scott Atlas encourages large holiday gatherings: “For many people this is their last Thanksgiving” at Media Matters.

Read as Marketplace wonders “How might COVID-19 vaccine makers compete in the marketplace?”

Read “Alabama Sorority Gets Official Blessing for 600-Person Farm Party Just in Time for Holidays” at Daily Beast.

Read “Dolly Parton partly funded Moderna Covid vaccine research” at The Guardian.

Read “GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa tests positive for Covid-19” at CNN.

Read “Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Trump’s response to the pandemic: ‘Frankly, he hasn’t been any help’” at MSNBC.

Read “Trump’s post-election tantrum is holding up federal vaccine planning” at The Verge.

Read “What we know about face masks has changed. Here's what experts say and which states mandate masks” at USA Today.

Read “FDA Approves First At-Home Coronavirus Test” at KCRW.

Read “McEnany calls state coronavirus restrictions for Thanksgiving 'Orwellian'“ at The Hill.

Read “Tyson managers bet money on how many workers would contract COVID-19” at Iowa Capital Dispatch.

Read “CDC urges Americans against traveling for Thanksgiving as coronavirus outbreak worsens” at CNBC.

Read “U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 250,000” at National Review.

Read “Ben Carson says he used unproven COVID-19 treatment recommended by MyPillow CEO” at The Hill.

Read “Biden calls for national mask mandate to fight COVID-19” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Reporters Blow Up at Covid Task Force For Ducking Questions at End of” at Mediaite.

Read “Tennessee mayor won’t require COVID masks until Holy Spirit says so” at Alabama.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “Trump's next move might be even more dangerous than his presidency” at MSNBC. “Trump's term is ending, but the fight against the extremism he stirred up is far from over.”

Read “The invention of mirrors and why they matter” at Boing Boing.

Read “BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost in Stock Deal With Verizon Media” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Big Retailers Made Nearly $15 Billion During the Pandemic, But Most Halted Hazard Pay” at Public Citizen.

Read “Now More Than Ever, Brandon Stanton Makes People Feel Less Alone” at New York Times.

Internationalities:

Read “Russia moves to protect Putin from prosecution” at BBC. “The Russian parliament's lower house - the Duma - has backed a bill granting Russian presidents and their families immunity from criminal prosecution after they leave office.”

Read “Israel scrambles to expand settlement in anticipation of changing U.S. policy under Biden” at Globe and Mail.

Read “Pompeo makes unprecedented visits to Israeli settlement in West Bank and Golan” at BBC.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “The Troubling Reason the Electoral College Exists’ at Time.

Read “The End of Trump? Biden & Harris Claim Victory in Historic Election, Vowing to Heal Divided Nation” at Democracy Now.

Read “Trump Sought Options for Attacking Iran to Stop Its Growing Nuclear Program” at New York Times.

Read the opinion piece “Republicans are letting Trump wage war on democracy” at Washington Post.

Read “Joe Biden wins Georgia, flipping the state for Democrats” at AP News.

Read “Rahm Emanuel under consideration to become Biden's transportation secretary” at CNN.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Evidence suggests several state Senate candidates were plants funded by dark money” at Local 10.

Read “Sore loser or victim? Trump voters struggle with president’s role in defeat” at Washington Post. "A majority of Republican voters — 70 percent — say the election was unfair, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll"

Read “Trump Administration Ending Like It Began: Lying About Crowd Size” at Slate.

Read “Ga. secretary of state says fellow Republicans are pressuring him to find ways to exclude legal ballots” at Washington Post. “Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says he has come under increasing pressure from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots in an effort to reverse Trump's loss.”

  • Read “Graham says he's talked to officials in two states about election” at The Hill. “After Graham told reporters that he spoke with election officials, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) said on Twitter that Graham had not spoken with her.”

    • Read “Graham faces questions for reaching out to GA election official” at MSNBC.

    • Read “Lindsey Graham’s Alleged Attempt to Toss Georgia Ballots Is Felony Election Fraud” at Slate.

  • Read “Trump Fires Election Security Director Who Corrected Voter Fraud Disinformation” at NPR. “President Trump has fired Christopher Krebs, a top cybersecurity official who affirmed the security of the election and rebutted rumors and baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud that Trump promoted.”

  • Read “Trump Doesn't Have To Win In Court To Erode Trust In Voting” at NPR.

    • Read “'People will stop believing in the process.' Why Donald Trump's Legal Strategy Is Dangerous Even If It's Likely to Fail” at Time. “Rudy Giuliani, to the chagrin of many, is candidly telling associates the goal of the campaign's lawsuits is sow enough doubt among GOP that legislatures in swing states punt and appoint their own electors”

  • Read “Trump Supporters Echo False Claims of Fraud: Election Update” at Bloomberg.

  • Read “Trump Campaign Attorneys Admit ‘There Is No Evidence’ of ‘Any Fraud’ in Connection with Challenged Ballots in Bucks County, Pa” at Law and Crime.

  • Read “Trump’s Strategy for Contesting the Election: Throw Out Black People’s Votes” at Mother Jones.

  • Read “Michigan Republican leaders going to White House Friday; Trump calls GOP canvassers” at Chicago Tribune.

  • Read “Illinois Sen. Duckworth says 'silence is deafening' from Republicans on Trump's election maneuvers” at Yahoo News.

  • Read “Inside Rudy Giuliani's attempt to sow chaos on behalf of Trump and steal the election” at CNN.

  • Read “'Did you all watch My Cousin Vinny?' Sweating Rudy Giuliani presents 'evidence' for 'massive voting fraud' as hair dye runs down his face - alongside 'elite legal strike force' who claim Joe Biden's win is a Venezuelan plot they uncovered on the internet” at Daily Mail.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires Exit Country Music Association After 2020 CMAs Didn’t Honor John Prine” at Pitchfork.

Read ‘Melvins Announce New Album Working With God, Share “I F**k Around” and “Bouncing Rick” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Morrissey and BMG Part Ways” at Pitchfork. “Morrissey accused the label of dictating “how their artists should behave”.

Read “Run The Jewels Release “No Save Point” Video, Announce Craft Beer Collaboration” at Treble.

Read “Electrosoul's SAULT Center Themselves Around Blackness on 'UNTITLED (Black Is)'“ at Pop Matters.

Read “Guitar Center Is Officially Filing for Bankruptcy” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Bandcamp Launches New Livestreaming Service for Artists” at Pitchfork.

Read “Lo-Fi Hip-Hop Has Become One Of The Internet’s Most Popular Subgenres; Is Slowed & Reverb Next?” at Okay Player.

Read “Anti-Flag release vol. 2 of new protest/benefit single ft. Tom Morello, Marcia of The Skints & more” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Why Is The Obscure B-Side “Harness Your Hopes” Pavement’s Top Song On Spotify? It’s Complicated” at Stereogum.

Read “How Elektra Records ushered in the alternative music revolution—and then helped kill it” at AV Club.

Read “It Is Time For The Youth To Wake Up!" Songhoy Blues Interviewed” at Clash Music.

Read “Steve Earle Covers Justin Townes Earle’s “Harlem River Blues” for Upcoming Memorial Record” at Jambands.

Read “How Leonard Cohen Haunted the Trump Era” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “John Mulaney joins Seth Meyers’ ‘Late Night’ writing staff” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Nelly Cast as Chuck Berry in New Buddy Holly Biopic” at Pitchfork.

Design/Artsy Things:

Watch “this expert apple sculptor create juicy delights” at Boing Boing.

Read “Art Yard publishes Sun Ra inspired photography book” at The Wire.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Public Health/Etc.:

Read “Vaccine Group Hits $2 Billion 2020 Goal for Low, Middle Income Nations” at Bloomberg.

Read “World's only known white giraffe fitted with tracker to deter poachers” at BBC.

Read “Japanese town enlists terrifying robot wolves to protect them from bears” at Boing Boing.

Read “Technology Promises Connection, but Gen Z Sees a Paradox” at Barna.

Local:

Read “As Stores Close At Phoenix’s Paradise Valley Mall, Future Plans Grow” at KJZZ.

The Weekly Town Crier (11/13/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (11/13/20).

We’ll Miss You:

Read “Alex Trebek, long-running 'Jeopardy!' host, dead at 80” at CNN.

Read “Bishop Harry Jackson Jr., Trump’s Evangelical Adviser, Dies At 66” at Black Enterprise.

Religion and Stuff:

Read ‘Sexy swingers club or ‘church’: Who gets to decide?” at Religion News Service. “Rooms labeled as dungeons in remodeling plans for The Social Club have been renamed as "choir" and "handbell" space in the revamped United Fellowship Center. Courts may decide the sincerity of that conversion.”

Read “Evangelical asylum-seekers stuck in Mexico hold prayer vigil for the US election” at Religion News Service. “'Their lives and the lives of the children depend on the outcome of the election,' said Alma Ruth, founder of the Texas-based Practice Mercy Foundation.”

Read “Stressed by COVID, online seekers discover Buddhism’s calming practice” at Religion News Service. “Buddhist teachings about suffering and the impermanence of all things, many find, have particular relevance in this moment.”

Read “Conservatives value personal stories more than liberals do when evaluating scientific evidence” at The Conversation.

Read “Worse than bungling, McCarrick report shows Vatican failed to take abuse seriously” at Religion News Service.

Read “Is the Pastor Carl Lentz Fallout Just Beginning?” at Vanity Fair.

Read “Amid cries for church unity post-election, some Christians say ‘Not so fast’” at Religion News Service.

Read “Evangelical Advisers Back Trump’s Challenges of Election, but Stop Short of Alleging Fraud” at Roys Report.

Read “In a less religious country, Biden gained ground with religious voters” at Religion News Service.

Read “On Evangelical Masculinities” at The Revealer. “A review of Jesus and John Wayne and a reflection on evangelicals, masculinity, and race.”

Read “Joe Biden, president-elect at last, was shaped by a very American Catholic faith” at Religion News Service.

Read “Biden pledges to raise refugee ceiling to 125,000 in address to Jesuit group” at Religion News Service.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “'Remain in Mexico' policy: My foster daughter was separated from her family at the border” at USA Today.

Read “Would a Former President Get Secret Service Protection in Prison?” at Slate.

Read “Digital misogyny: Online abuse of women surges during COVID” at Al Jazeera.

Read “NASCAR Driver Indefinitely Suspended Over Swastika Tweet” at The Algemeiner.

Read “Judge dismisses Trump's libel lawsuit against CNN” at The Hill.

Read “White House press secretary refers question to the White House” at MSNBC.

Read “An Engineer Gets 9 Years for Stealing $10M From Microsoft” at Wired.

Read “Appeals Court Rules Harvard Doesn't Discriminate Against Asian American Applicants” at NPR.

Read “Zuckerberg defends not suspending ex-Trump aide Bannon from Facebook: recording” at Reuters.

This Week With The Police:

Read “Arkansas police chief resigns after threatening to abuse Democrats” at USA Today.

Read “Police, county attorney's office hide 738,000 records in Kentucky sex abuse case” at Tennessean.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “How Are We Going to Get Through the Next Two Months of COVID?” at Slate. “Even if Biden wins, we still have two months of Trump’s pandemic.”

Read “Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Infected With Coronavirus” at Bloomberg.

Read “After COVID-19 Diagnosis, Nearly 1 In 5 Are Diagnosed With Mental Disorder” at NPR. “1 in 5 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 is diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within 3 months, a new study finds. But the link goes further: people with psychiatric diagnoses were about 65% more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19. It's unclear why.”

Read “Biden’s ready to start his pandemic response immediately” at Stat News.

Read “Trump adviser overseeing campaign legal challenges gets coronavirus, sources say” at CNN.

Read “Two White House Aides, Guest of Giuliani Test Positive for Virus” at Bloomberg.

Read “Wear Masks To Protect Yourself From The Coronavirus, Not Only Others, CDC Stresses” at NPR.

Read “Ukraine's President Hospitalized With COVID-19” at NPR.

Read “At dinner parties and game nights, casual American life is fueling the coronavirus surge" at Washington Post.

Read “Nicola Sturgeon says Scots could get coronavirus vaccine 'by end of 2020'“ at Daily Record.

Read “Some Chicago Cops Still Won’t Wear Masks Despite 1,200 COVID Infections — Will A New PSA Actually Help?” at Block Club Chicago.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “Douglas Emhoff to become America's first second gentleman” at CNN.

Read “Mississippi legislator apparently floats secession after Biden victory” at The Hill.

Read “Today’s Authoritarian Leaders Aren’t Fascists—But They Are Part of the Same Story” at Time.

Read “I Put My Baby’s Urine In It” – Mike Tyson Pleads Guilty to Cheating” at Essentially Sports.

Read ‘Zoom Will Increase Its Security After FTC Alleges It Misled Its Users” at Slate.

Read “Jon Voight says fighting 'lie' Biden won is 'greatest fight since the Civil War'“ at The Hill.

Read ‘Trump’s Defeat Didn’t Stop His ‘Ban’ on Modern Architecture” at Bloomberg. “The president never signed a controversial “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” executive order. But a neoclassical-only building mandate is still happening.”

Read “Cannabis farms struggle to survive California wildfires without insurance” at Cronkite News.

Read “These companies are helping working parents navigate an impossible situation” at Fast Company.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read ‘Joe Biden Wins The 2020 Presidential Election” at Okay Player.

  • Read “Donald Trump’s statement in full after Joe Biden declared winner Trump says presidential race is far from over, accuses Biden’s ‘media allies’ of hiding the truth” at Al Jazeera.

Read “The Green New Deal Didn't Sink Democrats” at Gizmodo.

Read “Trump commission did not find widespread voter fraud” at Associated Press.

Read “The Slow-Motion Humiliation of an Empty Demagogue” at Slate. “The president’s sadism ends in his own agony.”

Read “Congress’ first gay Afro-Latino on his historic election” at MSNBC.

Read “'We're not some demonic cult': Democrats fume over faulty messaging” at Politico.

Read “Slim majority support adding more seats to Supreme Court” at The Hill.

Read “Claims that dead people voted went viral. These are the facts” at CNN.

Read “Trump campaign wins case on voter ID deadline” at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Election Day Failing Puts DeJoy at Risk of Contempt Order” at Courthouse News.

Read “Pompeo on election results: 'There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration'“ at The Hill.

  • Watch “Republican senators refuse to say Biden won the election” at MSNBC.

  • Read “White House attorney dispatched to agency blocking Biden transition” at Yahoo.

  • Read “White House tells federal agencies to proceed with plans for Trump’s February budget in latest sign of election defiance” at Washington Post. “Directive is latest sign that Trump aides are acting as if he won the election and won’t leave office on Jan. 20.”

  • Read “Why the GOP Is Keeping Trump’s Voter-Fraud Fantasy Alive” at Vice. “The crucial importance of the two Senate runoff races in Georgia gives GOP leaders a powerful incentive to entertain Trump’s ludicrous claims.”

  • Read “Trump may accept results but never concede, aides say” at Yahoo.

  • Read “Math doesn’t care about your baseless allegations,’ Pennsylvania Lt. Gov Fetterman says about Trump lawsuits” at Yahoo.

    • Read “Few legal wins so far as Trump team hunts for proof of fraud” at Yahoo.

Read “Senate panel proposes $696B Pentagon spending bill” at The Hill.

Read “Trump weakens U.S. security with installation of unqualified loyalists at Pentagon” at MSNBC.

Read “Mark Esper fired as Pentagon chief after contradicting Trump” at The Guardian.

Read “Why are Republicans sticking with Trump? Peer pressure—and we’re all susceptible to it.” at America Magazine.

Read ‘Top official on U.S. election cybersecurity tells associates he expects to be fired” at Reuters.

Read “Donations under $8K to Trump ‘election defense’ instead go to president, RNC” at Reuters.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “Here's What Kamala Harris Is Jamming To In Between Campaign Stops This Summer” at Bustle.

Read “The Red Hand Files Issue #123”. “If there are others all moving in the same direction, and they look like you, and they move like you, and they all like the same things, and they hate the same things, and they are angry about the same things, and they are screaming about the same things, chances are you are on the wrong path.”

Read “Transmissions :: John Darnielle of Mountain Goats” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Brian Eno’s Music for Anxious Times” at New York Times.

Read “An Architect of Americana, Lucinda Williams, Talks with ‘Songcraft’ Podcast” at American Songwriter.

Read “How 200 Musicians Joined Forces to Complete Sufjan Stevens’ Unfulfilled 50 States Project” at Pitchfork.

Watch “Sturgill Simpson Chat, Play “Breakers Roar” on Colbert” at Pitchfork.

Read “Lambchop :: The AD Interview” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Fighting to Be Heard: The Story of the Black Country Music Association” at Rolling Stone.

Listen to “Neil Young & Crazy Horse :: Danger Birds (A 40-Minute Live Megamix)” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “The Troubled Afterlife Of The Cranberries’ “Zombie” at Stereogum.

Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for “Neil Young’s Essential Albums”.

Read “The Weeknd to headline Super Bowl halftime show” at The Hill.

Browse “Decibel’s Top 40 Albums of 2020”.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Concrete Jungle: Forthcoming U.K. TV Show Celebrates 2 Tone Ska Scene” at Flood Magazine.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “DC Comics Promotes Marie Javins to Editor-in-Chief” at Variety.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read “Botched Restoration of Spanish Sculpture Draws Scrutiny” at Art News.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Early Hackers Used Whistles From Cap’n Crunch Cereal Boxes” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “What was the Carrington Event?” at Universal-Sci.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Exploding whale film gloriously restored in 4K” at Boing Boing.

Read “Inside a Domed Pyramid With Astounding Acoustics and a History of Miracles” at Atlas Obscura.

The Weekly Town Crier (11/06/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (11/06/20).



We’ll Miss You:

Read “Sean Connery Has Died. Friends, Fans, and the Other James Bonds Are Saluting Him on Social Media” at Slate.

Read “Bob Biggs, Los Angeles Punk-Rock Entrepreneur, Dies at 74” at New York Times.

Read “Gospel legend Bishop Rance Allen dies at age 71” at CNN.

Read “Comedian and actor John Sessions has died” at NME.

Read ‘Jamie Coots, co-star of ‘Snake Salvation,’ dies of a snakebite” at Religion News Service. “Coots, whose father is also a serpent-handling preacher, was a legendary figure among a small group of Pentecostal believers who practiced the so-called “signs of the gospel” found in Mark 16; among them taking up serpents.”

Read “Baron Wolman, Rolling Stone Photographer Who Captured Rock Gods, Dead at 83” at Rolling Stone.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Waking the Witch: The Feminist History of Spiritualism” at Ms. Magazine.

Read “For a growing number of evangelical Christians, Trump is no longer the lesser of two evils” at The Conversation.

Read “Scholars call out Putin and the ‘escalation’ of persecution against Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” at Religion News Service.

Read “The First Church of Equivocation” at Christian Socialism. “One obvious reason is simply that well-connected people protect other well-connected people. However, another reason is bound up in the story “moderate” evangelicals tend to tell each other: a guy like Metaxas might be going a bit far, but hey, what about those softly totalitarian authors of picture books that humanize gay couples? Aren’t they just as bad?”

Read “They All Got Careless’: How Falwell Kept His Grip on Liberty Amid Sexual ‘Games,’ Self-Dealing” at Politico. “The deposed university president secured backing by ousting critics and hiring the family members and businesses of loyalists.”

Read “It’s time to rescue the ‘pro-life’ label from anti-abortion activists” at Religion News Service.

Read Black faith leaders call for nonviolent resistance, strikes if Trump refuses election results” at Religion News Service.

Read “John Piper’s Liberty Convocation Pulled After Election Post” at Christianity Today.

Read ‘Trump’s refugee policy is a miserable moral failure” at Christian Century. “So is our nation’s long history of choosing economic success over global equity, safety, and wellbeing.”

Read “It’s time to rescue the ‘pro-life’ label from anti-abortion activists” at Religion News Service.

Read “Yep, There’s a Second QAnon Supporter Heading To Congress” at Vice.

Read “Latino Evangelicals Boost Trump in Florida and Texas” at Christianity Today.

  • Read “Hispanics’ Support For Trump Tied To Faith” at NPR.

Read “A cemetery is desecrated, shaking Michigan’s Jewish community on Election Day” at Religion News Service.

Read “Carl Lentz, pastor of Hillsong East Coast and Justin Bieber, terminated for ‘moral failures’ says church” at Religion News Service.

Read “Election Civility Is Not Enough” at Christianity Today.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “2 Former Black Comics Editors Allege Years of Racial Discrimination at DC Comics” at The Root.

Read “Illinois authorities extradite Kyle Rittenhouse to Wisconsin” at USA Today.

Read “Study warns five states at high risk for election-related armed violence by militia groups” at The Hill.

Read “In 1868, Black suffrage was on the ballot” at American History.

Read “MLK's children fire back after McConnell invokes their father in victory speech” at The Hill.

Read “MSNBC’s Joy Reid Calls Clarence Thomas ‘Uncle Clarence’” at Free Beacon.

Read “Steve Bannon and his co-host discuss beheading Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray” at Media Matters.

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read “Mississippi Votes To Replace Confederate-Themed State Flag” at NPR.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “Thai pro-democracy leader taken to hospital after ‘chokehold’” at Al Jazeera.

Read “Supreme Court sides with activist DeRay McKesson in lawsuit over officer injured at protest” at CNBC.

This Week With The Police:

Read “N.Y.P.D. Anti-Harassment Official Accused of Racist Rants” at New York Times. “The official was relieved of his command after City Council investigators amassed evidence that he posted vitriolic messages online under the name “Clouseau.”

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Trump Claims Doctors Make ‘More Money’ When They Lie About COVID-19 Deaths” at Huff Post.

  • Read “American Medical Association Blasts Trump’s Claim Doctors Inflate COVID Numbers for Cash” at Slate.

Read “Utah Department of Health Utah Department of Health building in Millcreek glass door shot out with pellet gun” at KSL.

Read “Idaho Republicans, including Lt. Gov. McGeachin, decry pandemic measures in new video” at Idaho Statesman.

Read “Trump said not to fear COVID-19. These people beg to differ” USA Today.

Read “German Study Finds Covid-19 Risk Is Low at Indoor Concerts With Safety Precautions” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Dubai Ruler Gets Covid Vaccine, Joining Other Top UAE Officials” at Bloomberg.

Read “Sweden’s Health-Care Workers Get $620 Bonus for Covid-19 Work” at Bloomberg.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “Halloween in the pandemic: Costumes and candy, at a distance” at KTAR.

Read “What Happened to All Those 'Vote for Pedro' Shirts?” at Vice. “Just in time for the election, we tracked down owners of the 'Napoleon Dynamite' relic and asked them: Why? And then it got deep.”

Read “No One Fights QAnon Like the Global Army of K-Pop Superfans” at Bloomberg.

Read “Yes, nuclear war could still happen” at The Hill.

Read “Why Ivanka Trump Is Coming Out Against Abortion Now” at Slate. “The first daughter has realized that her self-presentation as a “moderating force” no longer makes sense.”

Read “Johnny Depp Loses Libel Case Against British Tabloid The Sun” at Vulture.

Read “Whale sculpture stops Dutch train crashing into water” at The Guardian.

Read “‘Freak Power’: what Hunter S. Thompson’s fight to fix America can teach us in 2020” at NME.

Read “Buying a Gun Ahead of the Election Won't Make You More Powerful. Here's What Americans Should Do to Deal With Crisis Instead” at Time.

Read “Jack Ma’s Fortune Slumps $3 Billion After Ant Group IPO Freeze” at Bloomberg.

Read “Fascism, Then and Now” at Bias Magazine.

Read “Oregon Decriminalizes All Drugs, While D.C. Decriminalizes Psychedelics” at Rolling Stone.

Internationalities:

Read “Russian oligarch nicknamed the 'Sausage King' killed in sauna with crossbow” at BBC News.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Woman in labor stops to vote on her way to the hospital” at The Hill.

Read “Federal Judge Rejects Bid to Toss Texas Drive-Through Votes” at Bloomberg.

Read “How Conservatism Failed Its Women” at Slate.

Read “So How Wrong Were the Polls This Year, Really?” at Wired. “Pollsters spent four years preparing to better capture Trump support and avoid a repeat of 2016. Somehow, they missed it again.”

Read “Kanye West Concedes Presidential Race, Looks Toward 2024” at Los Angeles CBS Local.

Read “Twitter and Facebook slap warning labels on Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud” at Salon.

  • Read “Wisconsin official scoffs at idea of voting irregularities: ‘There are no dark corners or locked doors’” at Washington Post.

Read “Networks pulled away from President Trump’s shocking press conference” at Poynter. “Then, even normally reserved news anchors responded swiftly and strongly to Trump’s false claims about the election.”

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Judges Are Already Testing How Far Amy Coney Barrett Will Go for Republicans” at Slate. “In a shocking opinion, two judges tried to hijack Minnesota’s election law to throw out mail ballots.”

Read “Biden camp cancels multiple Texas events after a "Trump Train" surrounded a campaign bus” at Texas Tribune.

  • Read “Trump Writes ‘I Love Texas!’ Over Video Of MAGA Truck Attack On Biden Caravan” at Huff Post.

Read “Special interest groups likely spent more than $13 million at Trump properties. They got what they paid for” at Citizens For Ethics.

Read “Attorney General Bill Barr Meets With Radical Right-Wing Activist Dave Daubenmire” at Right Wing Watch.

Read “Arizona elections official sees uptick in calls after Trump spreads false information to voters” at 12 News.

Read “MAGA Fanatics Descend on Detroit Vote-Counting Site As Biden Wins Michigan” at Daily Beast.

Read “AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s big distortions on mail-in voting” at Associated Press.

Music-Related News and Such:

Browse “100 essential Arizona records: The 1920s to 1950s” at AZ Central.

Read “When Music Becomes Political Protest” at Pitchfork. “A conversation about the long and complex relationship between music and social justice movements, on our podcast The Pitchfork Review.”

Read “The Deeply Meditative Electronic Music of Avant-Garde Composer Eliane Radigue” at Open Culture.

Read “Maynard James Keenan on “Arrogant” Pandemic Behavior: “There’s Logic Attached to Just Looking Out for Each Other” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Spotify to offer artists and labels the option to promote their music in your recommendations” at Fader. “In exchange for a lowered “promotional recording royalty rate.”

Browse “Treble Roundtable: Comfort Albums at Treble.

Read “The Rock Hall Figured 2020 Induction Performances Would Be Too ‘Boring,’ So There Aren’t Any” at Vulture.

Read “Musicians’ Union calls for government not to “abandon” self-employed artists” at NME.

Read “Grammys Rename World Music Category Over “Connotations of Colonialism” at Pitchfork. “The Recording Academy sought to name the award with a “more relevant, modern, and inclusive term”

Read “South Carolina Amphitheater to Be Renamed in Honor of Sharon Jones” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Eyes of Shannon Hoon: Danny Clinch on Using Found Footage to Craft a Documentary” at Relix.

Read “Stevie Nicks On TikTok, Tom Petty And Claiming What's Yours” at NPR.

Read “Why Is ‘Saturday Night Live’ Suddenly Booking So Many Older Rock Bands?” at Variety.

Read “Justin Bieber & Chance the Rapper Are Dropping the Acoustic Version of 'Holy'“ at Billboard.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Marilyn Manson joins anthology series ‘Creepshow’ for second season” at NME.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:

Read “Rare bright yellow turtle spotted for only second time” at CNet.

Read “Did You Know That Some People Can Create a Rumbling Sound in Their Ears?” at My Modern Net.

Food Cultures:

Read “Reviving America’s Forgotten Boozy, Fruity Election Cake” at Gastro Obscura.

Read “BevMo acquired in $350-million deal as booze deliveries surge” at Los Angeles Times.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Why There’s a Columbo Statue in the Middle of Budapest” at Atlas Obscura. “The American television character is memorialized in an unlikely locale.”

The Weekly Town Crier (10/30/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (10/30/20).


We’ll Miss You:

Read “Jerry Jeff Walker (1942 – 2020), “Mr. Bojangles” singer and songwriter” at Legacy.

Read “Diane di Prima 1934–2020” at Poets.Org.

Read “Billy Joe Shaver, Seminal Outlaw Country Songwriter, Dead at 81” at Rolling Stone.


Religion and Stuff:

Read “Meet the TikTok Generation of Televangelists” at Christianity Today.

Read “A Photographer's Journey Through the Dangerous New Age of Conspiracies in America” at Time.

Read “New England Churches Buy Up, Forgive $26.2 Million In Medical Debt” at Boston Globe.

Read “AOC credits her Catholic faith for positions on health care, environment” at National Catholic Reporter.

Read “Peeing pastor’ hunt comes to an end” at Religion News Service. “The wife of a North Carolina pastor accused of disorderly conduct during a flight from Las Vegas to Detroit says he had a bad reaction to sleeping medication.”

  • Read “Well-Known” N.C. Pastor accused of urinating on Michigan woman during flight identified” at NC Beat.

Read “The Anti-Abortion-Rights Movement Prepares to Build a Post-Roe World” at The Atlantic. “As activists move closer to their goal of making abortion illegal, they have started planning for the infrastructure needed for a world with more babies—and recruiting major CEOs to bankroll their cause.”

Read the Opinion piece “Don’t Vote Trump For Religious Liberty” at Religion Unplugged.

Read “NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere sentenced to 120 years in prison” at Salon. “At the sentencing, one victim said she was treated like a “piece of meat” and a “brainwashed sex slave"

Read “He’s a former QAnon believer. He doesn’t want to tell his story, but thinks it might help” at Washington Post.

  • Read “Christian QAnon’ers Want To #Savethechildren. They’re Making Things Worse” at Sojourners.

Read “Mysterious Orb Caught On Camera In Florida Pastor’s Home” at Miami CBS Local.

Read “Trump Becomes the First President Since Eisenhower to Change Faiths in Office” at Christianity Today. “Like many Christians switching churches, he now identifies as nondenominational.”

Read ‘The Alpha-Male Style in American Evangelicalism” at Christianity Today. “A historian asks whether a warped view of masculine authority has corrupted our faith and political witness.”

Read “Jerry Falwell Jr. Sues Liberty University for Defamation” at Julie Roys.

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “'A flat-out lie': Breonna Taylor attorneys seek new prosecutor after jurors speak out” at Yahoo.

Read “US Ice officers 'used torture to make Africans sign own deportation orders'“ at The Guardian.

Read “Kushner questions if Black Americans "want to be successful" in widely criticized Fox News interview” at Salon.

Read “Ida B. Wells was driven out of Memphis in 1892. She might soon have her own statue there” at USA Today.

Read “Neo-Nazi Ex-Marine And Porn Actor Arrested In Conspiracy To Hide Weapons From Government” at Huff Post. “The cases, involving three men, appear linked to threats against Alicia Garza, a Black Lives Matter movement co-founder.”

Read “Number of Women Alleging Misconduct by ICE Gynecologist Nearly Triples” at The Intercept. “Advocates briefed senators on allegations that a doctor working with with an ICE detention center performed unnecessary or overly aggressive procedures.”

Read “Judge blocks DOJ's gambit in Trump's E. Jean Carroll case” at MSNBC. “After a woman accused Trump of sexual assault, he lashed out at his accuser, prompting a defamation case. The DOJ wants to intervene; a judge won't let it.”

Read “Militia leader Stewart Rhodes says that his group will be at polling locations and is ready to kill Democrats” at Media Matters.

  • Read “'It's performance art': Lawyer for Alex Jones says InfoWars founder is 'playing a character'“ at Business Insider from 2017).

Read “Unlocking the Vote in Jails” at Slate. “The majority of the 745,000 people held in local jails can vote, but few do. Advocates say it’s voter suppression on a national scale.”

Read “42% of Young Australian Men Don’t Think Punching a Partner Is Domestic Violence” at Global Citizen.

Read “ICE moves to quickly deport more immigrants without court hearings” at CBS News.

Read “Susan Collins: 'I do not believe systemic racism is a problem in the state of Maine' at CNN.

Read “Lil Wayne Voices Support For Trump’s Platinum Plan: “He Listened To What We Had To Say” at Okay Player.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “'Boogaloo Bois' member charged in attack on Minneapolis police precinct during George Floyd protests” at ABC News.

Read “A Look Back at the People's Plaza Protest” at Nashville Scene. “With the process to remove the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust underway, we look back on the summer's longest-running protest.”

Read “A White House Adviser Was Involved in Surveillance of Protesters” at The Nation. “Formerly a Middle East adviser to Mike Pence, an intelligence official central to DHS’s Portland operation has not been made available for congressional testimony.”

This Week With The Police:

Read “Protests in Philadelphia After Police Fatally Shoot Black Man” at New York Times.

Read “Phoenix police officer accused of threatening Mayor Kate Gallego” at KTAR. “A Phoenix police officer allegedly made a “credible threat” against Mayor Kate Gallego, the mayor’s office said.”

Read “Cops Do a Big Lie About Philly Protests, Immediately Get Caught” at Discourse Blog.

Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings

Read “Guidelines for keeping classrooms open during COVID-19 revised by ADHS” at 12 New AZ.

Read “Montgomery faith leaders urge voters to approve property tax increase for schools” at Montgomery Advisor.

Read “State leaders in Arizona have quietly changed school metrics as COVID-19 cases rise” at ABC 15.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Health Agency Halts Coronavirus Ad Campaign, Leaving Santa Claus in the Cold” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Certified safe labels coming for face masks” at Boing Boing.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “Small-business owners say national paid sick leave wouldn’t hurt their bottom line” at Fast Company.

Read “BuzzFeed Expects to Break Even This Year, Thanks to Heavy Cost Cuts” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Facebook’s Top Public Policy Executive in India Steps Down” at Wall Street Journal. “Ankhi Das drew criticism in India over social-media giant’s enforcement of its policy on anti-Muslim hate speech.”

Read “Marilynne Robinson: 'America still has a democratic soul' at The Guardian. “The author of Gilead on the Black Lives Matter protests, the dangers of social media, and her latest novel, Jack.”

Read “A liberal daughter discusses White privilege with her conservative dad” at Christian Century. “What would happen if we listened to each other in love?”

Read “City Pages is closing, ending the era of alternative weeklies in Twin Cities” at Star Tribune.

Read “Sarah Cooper Jokingly Calls Out Stephen Colbert For Creating Trump” at Huff Post. “The “Late Show” host’s fictional “Colbert Report” character has become a reality.”

Read ‘One in Five Holiday Dollars Will Be Spent Online” at Bloomberg.

Read “Trump Has Weaponized Masculinity As President. Here's Why It Matters” at NPR.

Read “The Co-Opting of Rap Criticism Is About More Than Just Music” at Vice. “The strongest reporting on the LA riots of 1992 came from Black writers at a hip-hop magazine. In 2020, the infrastructure for a robust Black press doesn't exist.”


Internationalities:

Read “Putin rejects Donald Trump's criticism of Biden family business” at Reuters.

Read “Kazakhstan’s Tourism Board Embraces Borat’s “Very Nice!” as New Slogan” at Consequence of Sound.

Browse “Photographer Shows Differences Between North and South Korea” at Clever Classic.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “To defend taking immigrant kids from their parents, Trump blamed Biden” at Washington Post.

Read “Trump Told Donors That It Will Be ‘Very Tough’ For Republicans To Hold Senate” at Huff Post.

Read “Texas Supreme Court temporarily reinstates governor's ban on additional ballot drop boxes in state” at The Hill.

Read “Senate Confirms Amy Coney Barrett To The Supreme Court” by NPR.

Read “Boston man charged with setting fire to ballot drop box” at The Hill.

Read “Cruz: Hunter Biden attacks don't move 'a single voter'“ at The Hill.

Read “Ex-Postal Service worker charged with tossing absentee ballots in dumpster in Kentucky” at NBC News.

Read “Murkowski predicts Barrett won't overturn Roe v. Wade” at The Hill.

Read “Middle-finger voting is driving the entire country mad” at The Week. "The animating principle of our public life is the performance of certain rituals that set us apart (or so we fondly imagine) from persons utterly unlike ourselves whom we despise."

Read “Scaramucci: ‘I applaud the President for unifying the country. It just happens to be against him’” at MSNBC.

Read “Miles Taylor, a Former Homeland Security Official, Reveals He Was ‘Anonymous’” at New York Times.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Five Lessons for Fighting Back After a Disputed Election” at Slate.

Read “Trump Basically Just Encouraged Voters To Commit Election Fraud By Changing Their Already-Cast Votes To Him” at Comic Sands.

Read “Thousands of mail ballots may be lost, Pittsburgh-area official says” at The Hill.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “When David Byrne Got Together With Spike Lee” at New York Times.

Read “The Spiritual Power of Pharoah Sanders” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Jah Wobble on his 5 essential bass albums” at Guitar World. “Jah Wobble on his 5 essential bass albums.”

Read as Cameron Crowe interviews Joni Mitchell for The Guardian. “Joni Mitchell: 'I'm a fool for love. I make the same mistake over and over'“.

Read “Trent Reznor, Billy Corgan, More to Play Virtual David Bowie Tribute Festival” at Pitchfork.

Read “Earth Couldn’t Contain Sun Ra’s Ideas. His Arkestra Is Still Exploring Them” at New York Times.

Read “Lamb of God’s John Campbell: Donald Trump Is “Murdering People” at Consequence of Sound.

Listen/Read “Lambchop Cover Stevie Wonder’s ‘Golden Lady’” at Spin.

Read “Stevie Nicks Can’t Wait for the Magic to Come Back” at Rolling Stone. “Nicks discusses her ’24 Karat Gold Concert Film’ and returning to live shows in new interview.”

Browse PopMatters’ picks for “The Top 10 Definitive Breakup Albums”. What are your picks?

Browse Paste’s picks for “14 Creepy Songs From 2020 to Add to Your Halloween Playlist.”

Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Collaborations”.

Browse Consequence of Sound’s picks for “Every Bruce Springsteen Album from Worst to Best”.

Read/Listen to “What Bruce Springsteen Lost And Found” at NPR.

Read “Garcia Peoples :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview”.

Browse PopMatters’ picks for “15 Overlooked and Underrated Albums of the 1990s.”

Browse “Throwing Muses’ Kristin Hersh on the Music That Made Her” at Pitchfork.

Read “Can’t get enough K-pop? Check out these 6 reality shows to feed your fandom” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “‘Stardust’: Young David Bowie Hits the Road to Fame, Self-Discovery in New Trailer” at Rolling Stone.

Read “He Helped Create Lollapalooza. Now He Wants to Save Live Music” at New York Times.

Watch “The Flaming Lips bring their socially distanced bubbles to ‘Assassins Of Youth’ video” at NME.

Read “Chill Vibes, Minus the Wind Chimes: It’s a New Day for New Age Music” at New York Times.

Read “13 Songs for Halloween: "Red Right Hand" + "Song of Joy" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds” at KEXP.

Read “How Jamaica shaped the creative spirit and evolution of music production” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Outkast’s Stankonia Presented An Eclectic Hip-Hop Utopia” at Treble.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Stacey Abrams’ Voter-Suppression Documentary ‘All In’ Will Be Free on YouTube” at Variety.

Books/Reading/Authors

Read “Lemonheads’ Evan Dando Pens Memoir ‘Rumors of My Demise’" at Rolling Stone.

Browse “10 Recent Books By Asian American Poets” at Book Riot.

Browse “Ten Poets Every Pastor Should Read” at Anglican Compass.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:

Read “NASA discovered evidence of hidden water on a sunlit surface of the Moon for the first time” at Today News Post.

Read “Scientists discover coral reef taller than the Empire State Building” at CNet.

Read “Alphabet's Loon sets record for stratospheric flight by a balloon” at CNet.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “The Myth of the Werehyena and the Fear of the Other in the Horn of Africa” at Astro Obscura.

See “A Glass Floor in a Dublin Grocery Store Lets Shoppers Look Down & Explore Medieval Ruins” at Open Culture.

Local:

Read “How Arizona Wilderness DTPHX Became a Bird-Friendly Beer Garden” at Phoenix New Times.

The Weekly Town Crier (10/23/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (10/23/20).

We’ll Miss You:

Religion and Stuff:

Read “Evangelicals opposed to Trump step out of the shadows with new groups and ads” at Yahoo.

Read “Stacey Abrams’ passion for voting began with her preacher parents” at Religion News Service.

Read ‘Collins PAC donated hundreds of dollars to two candidates who support QAnon” at The Hill.

Read “Christian Witness Demands That We Defend Truth—and Reject Donald Trump” at The Public Discourse.

Read “Pat Robertson Prophesies That Trump Will Win Reelection, Then the End Times Will Begin” at Right Wing Watch.

Read “Pope Francis, in Shift for Church, Voices Support for Same-Sex Civil Unions” at New York Times.

Read “Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin” by John Piper at Desiring God. “When a leader models self-absorbed, self-exalting boastfulness, he models the most deadly behavior in the world. He points his nation to destruction. Destruction of more kinds than we can imagine.”

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Read “Black man serving life sentence for stealing hedge clippers granted parole” at NBC News. “Fair Wayne Bryant was sentenced in 1997 under the state's habitual offender law. On Thursday, a parole committee voted for his release.”

Read “Texas social workers can now turn away LGBTQ, disabled clients” at NBC News. “A state regulatory board removed the discrimination protections following a recommendation from Gov. Greg Abbott.”

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “SF archbishop performs exorcism to cleanse protest site” at SF Gate.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Swiss yodellers blamed for worst supercluster of coronavirus cases in Europe” at Telegraph.

Read/Watch “Fact-checking Trump's false claims on virus” at MSNBC.

Read “Covid-19 Patients Put Remote Care to the Test” at Wall Street Journal. “Doctors and hospitals have strived to replace some in-person care with telemedicine during the pandemic.”

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Browse “24 spooky places to visit around the world” at National Geographic.

Read “The future of public transportation in the US depends on who wins the election” at CNN.

Read “Helping Hands Need A Break, Too: How To Lend Support Without Burning Out” at NPR. “If you're feeling numb or overburdened these days in response to another's pain or request for help, that doesn't make you unkind. You could be experiencing compassion fatigue.”

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “Americans Are Voting Early At A Record Rate” at Huff Post.

Read “Trump's closing pitch to voters admits that America has to be made 'great again' all over again” at Yahoo.

Read “After GOP Sen. Ben Sasse was recorded unloading on Trump, Woodward said other Republican senators “feel exactly the same way” at MSNBC.

Read “Progressive group: Feinstein must step down as top Democrat on Judiciary panel” at The Hill.

Read “Bob Woodward, Wolf Blitzer Claim GOP Senators Privately Criticize Donald Trump” at Huff Post. “After GOP Sen. Ben Sasse was recorded unloading on Trump, Woodward said other Republican senators “feel exactly the same way.”

Read “U.S. Budget Gap Tripled to Record $3.1 Trillion in Fiscal 2020, Treasury Says” at Wall Street Journal. “Spending soared 47% in year ended Sept. 30 as government rolled out programs to battle coronavirus and recession.”

Read “Inside the Fall of the CDC” at Pro Publica. “How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus.”

Read “John Kerry Is Mad as Hell” at Rolling Stone. “The former senator, presidential nominee, and Secretary of State on the “nincompoop” in the White House, the decimation of America’s reputation abroad, and what needs to be done to restore it.”

Read “Court rejects bid to extend vote counting on Navajo Nation in Arizona” at KTAR.

Read ‘Cruz, other Senate Republicans to release plan barring ‘court-packing’” at Washington Post.

Read “Perdue’s mocking of Kamala Harris yields nearly $2M haul for his rival” at AJC.

Read “Trump's Twitter hacked after Dutch researcher guessed password” at The Guardian.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Joe Kennedy III campaign says it improperly spent $1.5 million in Senate primary” at Boston Globe.

Read ‘Rudy: Only ‘50/50’ Chance I Worked With a ‘Russian Spy’ to Dig Dirt on Bidens” at The Daily Beast. “In a wild interview, the president’s personal attorney made clear he believes he’s on a mission to torpedo the Bidens. And he doesn’t care who supplied the ammunition.”

  • Read “Giuliani's 'October Surprise' already shows signs of backfiring” at MSNBC News. “This week's revelations were supposed to make Joe Biden look bad. Instead, they're proving to be a far bigger problem for his GOP accusers.”

Read “Inside the Republican Plot for Permanent Minority Rule” at The New Republic.

Read “Kanye West defends his candidacy after 'SNL' joke” at The Hill.

Read “Nicolas Cage and Marilyn Manson in Conversation” at Interview.

Read “Rudy Giuliani faces questions after compromising scene in new Borat film” at The Guardian. “Trump’s personal attorney has indiscreet encounter with actor playing Borat’s daughter in hotel room during pandemic.”

Read “The US Eliminated Nearly 21,000 Election Day Polling Locations for 2020” at Vice.

Music-Related News and Such:

Read “First Posthumous Ennio Morricone Collection Will Feature Seven Unreleased Tracks” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Brian Wilson Disavows Mike Love’s Beach Boys Playing Trump Fundraiser” at Pitchfork.

Read “Keith Jarrett Confronts a Future Without the Piano” at New York Times.

Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:

Read “Boston news anchor fired for appearing in Hubie Halloween” at AV Club.

Design/Artsy Things:

Read ‘From Miles Davis to Jon Hassell: the psychedelic covert artwork of Mati Klarwein” at Vinyl Factory.

Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Etc.:

Read “This Scientist Is Fighting to Save Coral Reefs—and Recruiting Other Women to Join Her” at Time.

Read “2,000-Year-Old Cat Etching Found at Nazca Lines Site in Peru” at New York Times.

Food Cultures:

Read “A Historical Dig Sheds Light on the Food of the Underground Railroad” at Gastro Obscura. “Archaeologists found muskrat, turtle, and other edible remains in Harriet Tubman Country.”

Read “Remembering When Americans Picnicked in Cemeteries” at Gastro Obscura.

Misc. Oddities:

Read “Rancher reports another mutilated cow in E. Oregon” at Capital Press.

Local: