The Weekly Town Crier (01/29/21)
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.