The Weekly Town Crier (06/11/21)
All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/11/21).
Religion and Stuff:
Read “Russell Moore’s Warnings Should Bring a Reckoning” by David French. “How much more evidence do we need that the church needs reform?”
Read “Godless grifters: How the New Atheists merged with the far right” at Salon. “What once seemed like a bracing intellectual movement has degenerated into a pack of abusive, small-minded bigots.”
Read “A refugee agency rebuilds its pipeline after Trump: ‘We’re starting from scratch’” at Religion News Service.
Read “Keep COVID-19 restrictions during in-person worship, ecumenical guide suggests” at Religion News Service.
Read: “A Chronicle Invesigation: Abuse of Faith” at Houston Chronicle. “In the past 20 years, a disturbing number of Southern Baptists with formal church roles have engaged in sexual misconduct, a new investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News reveals. They were pastors. Deacons. Youth pastors. They left behind more than 700 victims. Read and hear the stories of those victims, and learn the depths of the crimes and misconduct of the church leaders they trusted.”
Read “PTL! Andrew Garfield, Jessica Chastain to star as Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in biopic” at Religion News Service.
Read “Biden DOJ updates court filing after LGBTQ advocates blast its stance in religious schools case” at CNN.
Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:
Read “Judge overturns California’s 32-year ban on assault weapons” at Associated Press.
Read “Supreme Court Will Hear Case Of FBI Allegedly Surveilling Some Muslim Californians” at Huff Post.
Read “Why Arizona May Resume Gas Chamber Executions” at KJZZ.
Read “America’s gun obsession is rooted in slavery” at The Guardian.
Read “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax” at Pro Publica. “ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.”
Read “Wealthiest Executives Paid Little to Nothing in Federal Income Taxes, Report Says” at New York Times.
Read “Michael Cohen on Trump criminal probe: Everyone in the company lied for Donald” at MSNBC.
Read “America’s Dangerous Obsession With Innocence” at The Atlantic. “Most people on death row are guilty. That doesn’t mean they deserve their fate.”
This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):
Read “"It's now or never": Bipartisan congressional report finds Capitol police ignored Jan. 6 warnings” at Salon.
This Week With The Police:
Read “Could Brain Training Help Address Police Brutality?” at Wired. “New neuroscience-based technologies aim to improve decisionmaking under pressure. But solving systemic problems will take a lot more than that.”
Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings
Read “Judge orders reinstatement of Virginia teacher who opposed transgender rules” at The Hill.
Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:
Read “Fauci calls on China to release medical records of Wuhan researchers” at The Hill.
Read “Washington state to allow free pot with vaccines” at The Hill.
Read “Experts Knew a Pandemic Was Coming. Here’s What They’re Worried About Next” at Politico. “Nine disasters we still aren’t ready for.”
Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):
Read “Bill Gates' affairs were an open secret, and someone in Melinda's inner circle hired a private investigator before she filed for divorce, report says” at Business Insider.
Read “Why Is Growing Pot So Energy-Intensive?” at Slate. “Federal regulations, budtender preferences, and a weird trick with carbon dioxide.”
Internationalities:
Read “Nigerian gov’t says it ‘indefinitely’ suspends Twitter” at Al Jazeera.
Read “The world has gained a brand new ocean” at CNet. “On World Ocean Day, the Southern Ocean was officially recognized by National Geographic's mapmakers.”
Politics And Sucheries:
Read “There are already 19 QAnon candidates running for Congress in 2022” at Mic.
Read “Bye-bye Miss American Pie — whatever happened to the Republican Party and conservatism?” at The Hill.
Read “Our Welfare Puritanism” at Democracy Journal.
Read “Trump Spawned a New Group of Mega-Donors Who Now Hold Sway Over the GOP’s Future” at Pro Publica.
Read “3 in 10 Republicans believe Trump will be reinstated as president” at The Hill.
Read “Bipartisan Senate group rules out tax hikes on infrastructure” at The Hill.
This Week In Political Corruption:
Read “Iowa GOP advances bills to shorten early voting, restrict absentee ballots” at The Hill.
Read “Arizona's ballot audit could spread to other states. Here's what to know” at AZ Central.
Read “Giuliani Audio Proves Trump’s Team Was Lying About Ukraine” at Rolling Stone. “A new recording confirms that Trump and his allies were full of shit when they claimed “there was no quid pro quo” in Ukraine.”
Read “Joe Manchin Cares More About ‘Bipartisanship’ Than Fighting Jim Crow” at The Nation.
Read “Joe Manchin is opposing big parts of Biden’s agenda as the Koch network pressures him” at CNBC.
Read “OAN correspondent who is covering the Arizona election audit has been aiding the effort since at least December, documents show” at Business Insider.
Music-Related News and Such:
Read “Spotify Facing House Judiciary Committee Probe Over “Discovery Mode”” at Pitchfork.
Read “Reservoir Acquires Iconic Tommy Boy Music, Groundbreaking Hip-Hop Label, for $100 Million” at Variety.
Read “De La Soul's Catalogue Could Be Coming To Streaming Services” at Clash Music.
Read “Home Is Where My Record Collection Is” at Apartment Therapy.
Read “Sinead O'Connor Says She Is Retiring From Music” at Clash Music.
Read “Kid Rock Screams Homophobic Slur During Performance at Tennessee Bar” at Consequence.
Read “Foo Fighters to Play Madison Square Garden’s First Full-Capacity Show Since Start of the Pandemic” at Pitchfork.
Read “Moby on Making ‘Reprise’ and ‘Moby Doc,’ His Rise to Fame, and Living Sober” at Ozy.
Read “Dreamers Wait No Longer—An Expanded Crowded House Returns After A Decade Away” at American Songwriter.
Read “Neil Finn On Working With His Sons On New Crowded House Album, Canada Memories & Future Of Fleetwood Mac” at ET Canada.
Browse Stereogum’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2021 So Far.”
Read “Danny Elfman Is Here to Remind Listeners "It's Always Been About Politics"“ at Exclaim.
Read “East Meets West In Anoushka Shankar's Latest Album” at NPR.
Browse “The Strange World Of… Don Cherry” at The Quietus.
Read “Jimmy Eat World’s Zach Lind: Suns are special in ‘The Middle’ of playoff ride” at KTAR.
Read “YouTube Is Poised to Overtake Spotify as Music’s Biggest Bankroller” at Rolling Stone.
Read “Dancing With The Noise: A Conversation with Ben Chasny” at Record Crates United.
Read “The Enduring Appeal of Italian Composers’ Dramatic ‘Library Music’” at New York Times.
Read “Uncovering the Rich History of Spanish Experimental Music” at Bandcamp.
Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:
Read “Enjoy these surreal "One Minute Movies" by The Residents” at Boing Boing.
Read “Carole Baskin to “bring bad guys to justice” in new ITV show” at NME.
Read “Cowboy Bebop Composer Yoko Kanno Returns to Score Netflix’s Live-Action Series” at Consequence.
Read ‘Elizabeth Olsen was “frustrated” watching her ‘WandaVision’ performance” at NME. "I can see my 10-year-old theatre-kid self playing out to the audience.”
Read “Anthony Bourdain Didn’t Just Travel the World, He Let It Speak for Itself” at Variety.
Misc. Oddities:
Read “Those times the US military hoaxed the public about extraterrestrial contact” at Boing Boing.