The Weekly Town Crier (03/05/21)
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.
Read “The 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.
Read “Schitt’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.