The Weekly Town Crier (11/06/20)
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.”
