The Weekly Town Crier (08/14/20)

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All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (08/14/20).


We’ll Miss You:

Read “Lorenzo Wilson Milam, Guru of Community Radio, Is Dead at 86” at New York Times.

Religion and Stuff:

Read “What white evangelical Christians can't see when they see racism” at Religion News Service.

Read “GOP lawmaker calls on Falwell Jr. to resign over photo” at CNN.

Read ‘Virtual worship has become the people’s work” at Christian Century. “Discovering the limits—and possibilities—of common prayer via Zoom.”

Read “Democrats plan interfaith service to kick off convention” at Religion News Service.

Read “The Importance of "And" by Diana Butler Bass. “The Forgotten Political Message of Christianity.”

Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race/Racism or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:

Browse “Children’s Books by Black Authors” at the Conscious Kid.

Read “It's Time for American Leaders to Wake Up to the Threat of Climate Change for the Good of the Planet and Business” at Time.

Read “Louisiana man serving life for $30 drug sale set to be freed” at 12 News.

Read “Dallas Doctor Reflects on Being Treated as a 'Hero' in His Scrubs But 'Hated in a Hoodie'“ at People.

Read “Performative masculinity is making American men sick” at Vox. “The coronavirus has issued an undeniable taunt to American men on their home turf, and some have chosen to prove their virility through risk with no foreseeable reward. It’s a narrow vision of manhood that ignores other tropes like self-sacrifice and being a protector; performative masculinity for an audience of one that puts many more people at risk. And the solution would be so easy, if it weren’t left in the hands of the manliest men in the country.”

Read “New reports find Arizona at the top for kids testing positive for COVID-19” at 12 News.

Read “Russia’s approval of a COVID-19 vaccine is less than meets the press release” at Science.

Read “The Case for Abolishing the Department of Homeland Security” at Teen Vogue.

Read “Murder rate surges in big cities” at Axios.

Read “Trump: Biden, Booker would allow low-income housing to "invade" suburbia” at Axios. (RACiST)

Read “Trump says men may be "insulted" by Biden picking a woman for VP” at Axios. (SEXIST)

Read “Facebook steps up hate speech crackdown, removing 22.5 million posts in Q2” at Axios.

Read “Feds accuse Yale of discriminating against some applicants’ at Associated Press. “A Justice Department investigation has found Yale University is illegally discriminating against Asian-American and white applications.”

This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):

Read Georgia city votes to remove pavilion where slaves were sold” at Al Jazeera.

This Week In Protest-Related News:

Read “N.Y.P.D. Besieges a Protest Leader as He Broadcasts Live” at New York Times.

Read “Winfrey demanding justice for Breonna Taylor with billboards” at SF Gate.

Read “Phoenix records prove that police officers disproportionately use force against minorites.”

Read “‘I felt like my chest was on fire’: Photo shows Dallas police officer shooting protester with pepper-ball gun” at Dallas News.

Read “'Unprecedented' protests erupt in Belarus following election” at CNN.

Read “Viral Video Seemed To Show BLM Storming A Church. The Real Story Is Much Darker” at Buzzfeed News. “What people need to know is we’re not protesting churches. We’re protesting this church.”

This Week With The Police:

Read “Abolish the Police? Those Who Survived the Chaos in Seattle Aren’t So Sure” at New York Times.

Read “Police face new lawsuit, probes after Elijah McClain’s death” at Associated Press.

Read ‘Marion County deputies ordered not to wear masks” at OCALA.

Read “How police can use Brady lists to discredit whistleblowers” at ABC News 15.

School Re-Openings:

Read “I cannot lose another teacher’: Ariz. superintendent terrified over school reopening’ at MSNBC.

Read “Covid-19 Cases Among U.S. Children Jumped 40% in Late July” at Bloomberg.

Read “The Coronavirus Seems to Spare Most Kids From Illness, but Its Effect on Their Mental Health Is Deepening” at Time.

Read “Coronavirus prompts closing of Georgia high school in district with over 1K in quarantine” at NBC News.

Read “Florida's GOP governor compares reopening schools to the raid that killed bin Laden” at Business Insider.

Read “Ventilation should be part of the conversation on school reopening. Why isn’t it?” at PBS News Hour.

Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

Read “Antarctica is the last continent without COVID-19. Scientists want to keep it that way” at National Geographic.

Read “The Unique U.S. Failure to Control the Virus” at New York Times. “Slowing the coronavirus has been especially difficult for the United States because of its tradition of prioritizing individualism and missteps by the Trump administration.”

Read “Bill Gates on Covid: Most US Tests Are ‘Completely Garbage’” at Wired.

Read “Europeans Say COVID-19 Revealed America as 'Fragile,' Inconsiderate” at Newsweek.

Read “US tops 5 million coronavirus cases, continues to lead world in infections and deaths” at Fox News.

Read “Heart condition linked with COVID-19 fuels Power 5 concern about season's viability” at ESPN.

Read “Your View by Bethlehem heart transplant recipient: ‘I am in danger. Please wear a face covering.' at The Morning Call.

Read “Big Ten Votes to Call Off Football Season: Reports” at WCCO Radio.

Read “Fauci ‘seriously doubts’ the Russia vaccine is ready for widespread use” at National Geographic.

Read “Employees need masks even for at-home Zoom calls, Wisconsin agency says. Here’s why'“ at Kansas City Star.

Read “What Will It Take to Pass More COVID Relief Now?” at Slate.

  • Read “Pelosi says Mnuchin told her White House is "not budging" on stimulus position” at Axios.

Read ‘Face masks with valves, vents banned from most US airlines” at 12 News.

Miscellany Cultural Items:

Read “LEGO is launching braille bricks for students across the US” at CNN.

Read “Lebanon PM Hassan Diab resigns amid anger over Beirut blast” at Al Jazeera.

  • Read “Lebanon's government resigns as public anger mounts” at BBC.

Read “Twitter, George Soros, and Porn Subjective and Objective Realities” at The Margins. "A terrifying part of pandemic life is thinking about how, for so many of us, our understanding of reality is increasingly being shaped by algorithmically-curated, ad-funded digital representations."

Browse “17 Maps Of The United States That Made Us Say "Whoa" at Ranker.

Read “China's days as 'the world's factory' are over says iPhone manufacturer” at The Telegraph.

Read “The Strange Costumes of the Plague Doctors Who Treated 17th Century Victims of the Bubonic Plague” at Open Culture.

Read “CDC director warns high-school-age suicides and overdoses outpacing teen COVID deaths” at WND.

Read “Jake Paul says FBI raid on his home was ‘entirely related to the Arizona looting situation’ at The Verge.

Read “QAnon Followers Are Hijacking the #SaveTheChildren Movement” at New York Times.

Read “Why the Mauritius oil spill is so serious” at BBC.

Politics And Sucheries:

Read “A ‘radical’ leftist who is ‘against God’? Trump paints Biden in a picture many don’t recognize” at Washington Post. “President Trump is increasingly trying to run against a Joe Biden of his own making. Rather than look for campaign ammunition in the former vice president’s long track record of politically vulnerable votes and policy proposals, Trump has instead chosen to describe Biden as a godless Marxist bent on destroying the country with a radical agenda that would make Che Guevara blanch.”

Read “Aides walk back Trump’s vow to "permanently" cut Social Security tax if he’s re-elected” at Salon.

Read ‘Trump says 1918 flu pandemic ‘probably ended the Second World War,’ which ended in 1945” at Military Times.

Read “U.S. Intelligence: China Opposes Trump Reelection; Russia Works Against Biden” at NPR.

Read “Trump signs executive orders enacting $400 unemployment benefit, payroll tax cut after coronavirus stimulus talks stall” at AZ Central.

  • Read “Payroll Tax Delay To Boost Take-Home Pay, But Don't Spend It Yet” at NPR. “Critics say this particular relief measure is misguided since it benefits only people who are lucky enough to have a job still. What's more, because the tax relief is only temporary, workers are expected to repay the taxes next year.”

Read “In Historic Pick, Joe Biden Taps Kamala Harris To Be His Running Mate” at NPR.

  • Read “If Kamala Harris is also of Asian descent, why does the press only label her ‘Black?’” at Poynter.

  • Read “At least 11 women have vied for U.S. vice president. Here’s what happened to them” at National Geographic.

Read “U.S. budget deficit swells to $2.81 trillion” at Axios.

This Week In Political Corruption:

Read “Trump gets millions from golf members. CEOs and lobbyists get access to president” at USA Today.

Read “New York Times: White House reached out to South Dakota governor about adding Trump to Mount Rushmore” at CNN.

Read “I Worked at a Polling Place for the Michigan Primary” at Slate. “There wasn’t much concern about masks. There was plenty about voter fraud.”

Read “DeVos: 'Yes,' Trump's leaked tape comments describe sexual assault” at CNN (from January 2017).

Read “'Friday Night Massacre' at US Postal Service as Postmaster General—a Major Trump Donor—Ousts Top Officials” at Common Dreams.

  • Read “Postal Workers Decry Changes And Cost-Cutting Measures” at NPR. “"Mail is beginning to pile up in our offices, and we're seeing equipment being removed," said one postal worker.

  • Read “We Cannot Hold an Election Without a Functional Post Office” at Slate. “Trump’s refusal to save the U.S. Postal Service is an attack on voting rights.”

  • Read “The Post Office Is Deactivating Mail Sorting Machines Ahead of the Election” at Vice. “Good thing nobody's predicting a huge surge in mail any time soon.”

  • Read “Trump says he’s blocking Postal Service funding because Democrats want to expand mail-in voting.”

Music-Related News and Such:

Browse “The Aquarium Drunkard Guide To Three Lobed Recordings”.

Read/watch “25 Years After Jerry Garcia’s Death, the Grateful Dead’s Popularity Endures” at San Francisco CBS.

Read “Bruce Hornsby Looks Back on Jerry Garcia’s Last Days: ‘I Miss Him So Much’ at Rolling Stone. “The sometime Grateful Dead pianist recalls his final shows with the group and what made Garcia “a great hang”

Read “The Scientific Benefits of Listening to New Music” at Pitchfork.

Read “Burna Boy Details New Album Twice as Tall Featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Stormzy, More” at Pitchfork.

Read “Coronavirus Won’t Kill Independent Record Stores” at Vice.

Read “Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon Accused of Sexual Misconduct by Three Women” at Pitchfork.

Read “How mid-2000s emo groomed underage girls and poisoned teen boys” at Medium.

Read “Peter Capaldi picks his 5 favorite punk songs of all time” at AV Club.

Read ‘Beck Teams With NASA for New Hyperspace Visual Album” at Pitchfork.

See “Patti Smith Shares Performance of “Grateful” In Honor of Jerry Garcia” at Jambands.

Read “The Stooges' most infamous performance comes back to life, thanks to unearthed tapes” at Detroit Free Press.

Read “John Legend, Variety’s Music Mogul of the Year: Big Business, Bigger Love” at Variety.

Read “Watch Trey Anastasio and The Roots Perform “I Never Needed You Like This Before” on ‘The Tonight Show’ at Relix.

“Watch Sufjan Stevens’ Video for New Song “Video Game” at Pitchfork.

Read “Neil Young Makes Stand Against Google and Facebook” at Jambands.

Read “Bob Mould Announces Career-Spanning Box Set” at Pitchfork.

Read “Herding Cats: Harlem 1958” at Downbeat. "Many jazz fans have seen the iconic image, but few know its complete backstory. On Aug. 12, 1958, graphic designer and fledgling photographer Art Kane took a 35mm photograph of 57 jazz musicians on the doorstep of a Harlem brownstone at 17 E. 126th St.”

Read “Why do people keep risking their lives to see shit bands?” at NME. “In the past few months, punters have put it all on the line to see – *checks notes* – The Chainsmokers, Static X and Smash Mouth. Wait, what?”

Read “The Black Music Action Coalition Wants to Hold the Industry Accountable” at Pitchfork.

Movies/TV/Etc.:

Read “High Fidelity Reboot Canceled By Hulu” at Pitchfork.

Read “Layoffs Start at WarnerMedia” at Variety.

Read “Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek Movie Was a 1930s Gangster Film Set on Earth” at The Film Stage.

Books/Reading/Authors

Pre-order Jeff Tweedy’s newest book 'How To Write One Song’.

Read “The ‘Cancelling’ of Flannery O’Connor?” at Commonweal Magazine.

Read “Bob Woodward's new book details letters between Trump and Kim Jong-un” at Axios.

Design/Artsy Things:

See “Milton Glaser’s Stylish Album Covers for Bob Dylan, The Band, Nina Simone, John Cage & Many More” at Open Culture.

Meet “Morten Viskum: The Artist Who Paints With Severed Hands” at Cult of Weird.

Food Cultures:

Read “For Sale: Shipwrecked Whisky That Spent Decades Underwater” at Gastro Obscura. “Winning bidder take note: It is not safe to drink.”

Read “Postponement of weddings and other celebrations leads to a crash in champagne sales” at Boing Boing.

Local AZ:

Read “Statement from Mayor Jenn Daniels Regarding Resignation” at Gilbert.gov.

Read “It's official: This is Phoenix's hottest summer ever recorded” at AZ Central.