The Weekly Town Crier (09/11/20)
All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (09/11/20).
We’ll Miss You:
Read ‘Jazz Bassist Gary Peacock Dead at 85” at Pitchfork.
Religion and Stuff:
Read “Christian Group Seeks Removal Of Dinosaur From Tucson McDonald's” (EDITOR’S NOTE: I have no idea if this is satire or not).
Read “Black Christians Play a Crucial Role in Athlete Activism” at Christianity Today.
Read “Falwell swipes at media: 'You got nothing'“ at The Hill.
Read “Trump's ex-lawyer Cohen links Falwell’s endorsement in 2016 to suppression of racy photos” at Reuters.
Read “Reforming Liberty University in the post-Falwell era should begin with the Falkirk Center” at Religion News Service.
Read my own piece on LIberty University idolatrous Falkirk Center: ‘We're All Biblical Literalists (Until We're Not)”
Read “The Manosphere and the Church” at Theopolis.
Read “Jen Hatmaker, Christian author and former reality TV star, files for divorce” at Religion News Service.
Read “Christian musician Sean Feucht held defiant Seattle worship protest after concert was banned” at Religion News Service.
Read “The Church of Individualism” at Mere Orthodoxy.
Race/Justice and Social Justice and Legal, or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:
Read “I CANCEL MYSELF’ White professor Jessica A Krug reveals she pretended to be black during entire career teaching African history” at The Sun.
Read “Akon Says His Senegalese Smart-City Will Be a Safe Haven for African Americans. Some Locals Wonder If There’s Room for Them, Too” at The Root.
Read “We Need to Talk About the GOP’s ‘Black Friends’ at The Nation.
Read “The Inevitable Whitelash Against Racial Justice Has Started” at The Nation.
Read “'The Gotaway': Online video produced and posted by the Border Patrol spreads fear of migrants” at Yahoo.
Read “White House memo calls for ban on federal agencies conducting training on "critical race theory," "white privilege" with taxpayer dollars” at CBS News.
Read “Trump Bans Diversity Training, Claiming It’s Divisive, Anti-American Propaganda” at Forbes.
Read “More Than Ever, Trump Casts Himself as the Defender of White America” at Yahoo. “Sorry liberals! How to be Anti-White 101 is permanently cancelled!”
Read “Trump says schools teaching NY Times’ 1619 Project ‘will not be funded’” at New York Post.
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 “Census Work Has Been Winding Down, But A Judge Says It Needs To Press On For Now” at NPR.
Read “History gives us reason for hope that inequality can be beaten” at Open Democracy.
Read “Appeals court agrees R&B singer R. Kelly should stay jailed” at 12 News.
Read “She Was Sued Over Rent She Didn’t Owe. It Took Seven Court Dates to Prove She Was Right.” at Pro Publica.
Read “ACLU Calls On Tech Companies to End Their Alliance with ICE and CBP” at ACLU.
This Week In Protest-Related News:
Read “Car drives through protesters in Times Square” at Bronx 12 News.
Read “Thomas Massie praises Kyle Rittenhouse, says he showed 'incredible restraint” at Louisville Courier-Journal. "He didn't empty a magazine into a crowd."
Read “Portland shooting suspect killed by officers” at Axios.
Read “Naomi Osaka Wears Face Mask with Breonna Taylor’s Name at U.S. Open” at Democracy Now.
Read “Alleged Boogaloo members face terrorism charges in Minnesota” at Yahoo.
Read “Michael Reinoehl appeared to target right-wing demonstrator before fatal shooting in Portland, police say” at The Oregonian.
Read “Kentucky Derby 2020: Empty stands and armed militias at America's most famous race” at The Guardian.
Read “Jacob Blake says from hospital bed it "hurts to breathe" following shooting” at Axios.
Read “93% of Black Lives Matter Protests Have Been Peaceful, New Report Finds” at Time.
Read “Proud Boys Seen in Video Attacking Protester With Bat at Oregon Rally” at Daily Beast.
Read “Across the Country, Protests Demand Release from Prisons, Jails, Detention Centers” at American Friends Service Committee.
Read “'Because I'm Scared': Jane Fonda's New Book Details Her Journey To Taking Climate Action” at WBUR.
Read “Michael Brown protest organizer suing Phoenix police, city for wrongful arrest” at 12 News.
This Week With The Police:
Read “Gilbert officer charged with falsifying arrest report, court records show” at ABC 15.
Read “From soldier to worker” at Reader. “Police unions were born of resistance to discipline for brutality. Do they belong in the labor movement?”
Read “A Black man was detained while jogging for fitting a suspect description and later offered a job with the sheriff's department” at CNN.
Read “Call police for a woman who is changing clothes in an alley? A new program in Denver sends mental health professionals instead.” at Denver Post.
Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:
Read “After Beirut Explosion, Lebanon Sees A Spike In Coronavirus Infections” at NPR.
Read “Fact check: No, the CDC has not reduced the death count related to COVID-19” at WFLA.
Read “Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was 'superspreading event' that cost public health $12.2 billion: analysis” at The Hill.
Read “Gatherings of more than six people banned in England from next Monday” at NME.
Read “Governor Ducey Issues Enhanced Surveillance Advisory To Track The Impact Of COVID-19 And Influenza On Health Care Capacity” at AZ Governor.
Read “U.S. closes in on grim pandemic milestone: the 200,000th COVID-19 death” at NBC News.
Read Trump told Bob Woodward he knew in February that COVID-19 was 'deadly stuff' but wanted to 'play it down' at NBC News.
See “32 times Trump said the coronavirus would go away” at Washington Post.
Read “We Need to Take Care of the Growing Number of Long-Term COVID-19 Patients” at Time.
Read “Union president: Grocery stores should kick out unmasked shoppers” at CBS News.
Read ‘AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine study put on hold due to suspected adverse reaction in participant in the U.K.” at Stat News.
Read “California’s GOP Senate leader was under quarantine. She spoke with no mask at a huge prayer event anyway” at Washington Post.
Miscellany Cultural Items:
Read “Jim Carrey Pens Striking Political Essay Urging Americans to Vote Out Trump” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “Beyoncé Pledges Another Million for Black-Owned Small Businesses” at Teen Vogue.
Read “Are Your Texts Passive-Aggressive? The Answer May Lie In Your Punctuation” at NPR.
Read “California wildfires set record as more than 2 million acres are scorched” at San Francisco Chronicle.
Read “As Wildfires Ravage the State, the Dark Side of the California Dream Slinks Out of the Shadows” at Los Angeles Magazine. “Fires have always loomed large over the California landscape—both a cleansing promise and an obliterating threat. But like so much else these days, they suddenly seem out of control.”
Read “Shocking pics show blaze devastation at 'national treasure' Scots woodland” at Daily Record.
Read “Facebook engineer quits, accuses social network of 'profiting off hate' at CNET.
Read “Zuckerberg to "Axios on HBO": "Just wrong" to say Facebook driven by conservatives” at Axios.
Read “We Talked to the Host Accused of Doing “Satanic Rituals” In His Airbnb” at Vice.
Read “The Atlantic gained 20,000 subscribers after Trump dismissed it as a 'dying' magazine” at CNN.
Internationalities:
Read “The Ghost Towns Behind The Gates” at NPR.
Politics And Sucheries:
Read “Trump's Base Is Shrinking As Whites Without A College Degree Continue To Decline” at NPR.
Read “Trump Faces Fallout From Report He Calls Military 'Losers' And 'Suckers' at NPR.
Read “Trump Weighs Putting Up to $100 Million of His Cash Into Race” at Bloomberg.
Read “Kanye Loses Arizona Supreme Court Appeal, Off the Ballot In Key Swing State” at “AZ Law”.
Read “Schiff: Barr “Flat Out Lying to American People” About China Election Threat” at Slate.
Read “White House lawn, Rose Garden being re-sod after damages from GOP convention” at Washington Post.
Read “Polls show Biden lagging among Latinos in close Florida race” at Al Jazeera.
This Week In Political Corruption:
Read “'People Around The President Are Trying To Stop Him,' 'Times' Journalist Says” at NPR. “New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt says it's unusual for advisors to be so focused on preventing a president from breaking the law. "Trump's use of power is so unusual that we have a phenomenon here where the people around the president are trying to stop him," he says.”
Read “Trump Reportedly Spent $58 Million In Campaign Funds On Legal Fees And Compliance” at Huff Post.
Read “Strzok: Trump's financial involvement with Russia is very broad” at MSNBC. “"There are a variety of entanglements that he holds that ... are of great concern and present prime opportunities for leverage over the president."
Read “Whistleblower alleges briefings on Russian interference stopped because it made Trump look bad” at MSNBC.
Music-Related News and Such:
Read “Taylor Swift 'Shake It Off' lawsuit goes forward in Los Angeles” at Fox7 Austin.
Read ‘M.I.A. Shares New Song “CTRL” at Pitchfork.
Read “Slow music: Chord change in Germany of 639-year organ piece” at Associated Press.
Read “Foreign Artist Visa Fee To Increase By Over 50% In The US” at The Quietus.
Listen “to New Order’s First New Song in 5 Years” at Pitchfork.
Read “Holy Roar Records founder accused of rape, several bands respond” at Brooklyn Vegan.
Read “Rush’s Geddy Lee Confirms He’s Alive After Trending on Twitter” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “Netflix Announces BLACKPINK Documentary Light Up the Sky” at Pitchfork.
Movies/TV/Video GamesEtc.:
Read “Ellen Promises (Threatens?) to ‘Talk About It’ When Her Show Returns” at Vulture.
Read “'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' coming to an end on E!” at CNN.
Read “Peacock lands the gritty Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air reboot, gives it a 2-season order” at AV Club.
Read “Black-ish’ Spinoff ‘Old-ish’ Starring Laurence Fishburne, Jennifer Lewis in Development at ABC” at Vulture.
Read “The Return of Colin Kaepernick — To The Madden Franchise” at NPR.
Read “TMZ’s Newsroom Is A Hotbed For Racism, Misogyny, And Verbal Abuse, Ex-Employees Say” at Buzzfeed News.
Books/Reading/Authors
Read “Reed Hastings on New Book, Netflix’s Future — and Why He Fired His Last CFO” at Variety.
Design/Artsy Things:
Read “Explore 1,100 Works of Art by Georgia O’Keeffe: They’re Now Digitized and Free to View Online” at Open Culture.
Food Cultures:
Read “The Egyptian Egg Ovens Considered More Wondrous Than the Pyramids” at Atlas Obscura.
Read “Fuddruckers, Luby’s Restaurant Chains to Be Sold in Liquidation Plan” at Wall Street Journal.
Misc. Oddities:
Read “When Botswana Farmers Paint Eyes on Their Cattle’s Butts, Everyone Wins” at Atlas Obscura.