The Weekly Town Crier (11/20/20)
All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (11/20/20).
Religion and Stuff:
Read ‘The Evangelical Reckoning Begins” at The Atlantic. “Andy Stanley, the pastor of one of the largest megachurches in the country, ponders the future of an influential corner of American Christianity.”
Read “How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps” at Vice. “A Muslim prayer app with over 98 million downloads is one of the apps connected to a wide-ranging supply chain that sends ordinary people's personal data to brokers, contractors, and the military.”
Read “What the Study of Religion Can Teach Us About Psychedelics” at Harvard’s Bill of Health website.
Read as Christian Century wonders “How do we grieve the hundreds of thousands of people the COVID-19 pandemic has killed?”
Read “William Barr and the politics of death” at Religion News Service. “We are not executing the ‘worst of the worst,’ as some may believe, but the poorest of the poor, and disproportionately people of color.”
Read “Never the Same Twice: Grace and the (Divinely) Inspired World of Jazz” at Mockingbird.
Read “Vatican Launches Probe After Pope’s Insta Account Likes Very Risqué ‘School Girl’ Pic” at Daily Beast.
Read “Five faith facts about former President Barack Obama’s new book: ‘A Promised Land’ at Religion News Service.
Read “Pastors Launch Church-Planting Network for ‘Black and Brown Neighborhoods’” at Christianity Today.
Read “Chicago church releases a beer for Advent — and the end of the world” at Religion News Service.
Read “Carl Lentz and the ‘hot pastor’ problem” at Religion News Service. “Maybe the problem isn’t hot pastors like Lentz but a toxic megachurch culture that makes narcissism a prerequisite.”
Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:
Read “The far right is cracking up, as their violent fantasies of Trump's fascist takeover evaporate” at Salon.
Read “University of California agrees to $73M sex abuse settlement over former UCLA gynecologist” at NBC News.
Read “Trump's legal adviser Jenna Ellis in 2016 called him an 'idiot' and said his supporters didn't care about 'facts or logic'“ at CNN.
Read “Rudy Giuliani Isn’t Even Trying to Make Coherent Legal Arguments Anymore” at Slate.
Read “Disturbing new details in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer” at ABC7 Chicago. “Disturbing new details in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer reveal their Plan B was to takeover the Michigan capitol building with 200 combatants, who would stage a week-long series of televised executions of public officials.”
Read “7 Ways Biden Could Go It Alone on Gun Violence Prevention” at The Trace.
Read “Make fun of the "Million MAGA March" all you want — white supremacy has not been defeated” at Salon.
This Week With The Police:
Read “Prosecutors say Chauvin kept his knee on teenager’s back for 17 minutes in 2017, while the boy said ‘I can’t breathe’” at Minnesota Reformer.
Read “ACLU, Activist Groups Denounce Prosecutions of Anti Police Brutality Protesters” at Phoenix New Times.
Read “Suburban Milwaukee Police Officer Who Has Killed 3 People Since 2015 Set To Resign” at NPR.
Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings
Read “When Schools Closed, Americans Turned to Their Usual Backup Plan: Mothers” at New York Times.
Read “Nicola Sturgeon insists schools in Scotland must stay open even in level 4 lockdown areas” at Daily Record.
Read “Mississippi governor calls for spending $3 million on 'Patriotic Education Fund'“ at The Hill.
Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:
Read “More than 130 Secret Service officers are said to be infected with coronavirus or quarantining in wake of Trump’s campaign travel” at Washington Post.
Read “Super-spreading wedding party demonstrates COVID-19 risk posed by holiday gatherings” at Los Angeles Times.
Read “Denver bar owner dies after second battle with COVID-19, cancer” at 9News.
Read “‘No One Is Listening to Us’” at The Atlantic. “More people than ever are hospitalized with COVID-19. Health-care workers can’t go on like this.”
Read ‘Utah Valley Hospital strained by conspiracy theorists trying to enter ICU” at KSL.
Read “Billionaire Medadoners Who Fought Wisconsin’s Plans To Contain Pandemic Get Infected At White House” at Milwaukee Independent.
Read “On Fox News, Dr. Scott Atlas encourages large holiday gatherings: “For many people this is their last Thanksgiving” at Media Matters.
Read as Marketplace wonders “How might COVID-19 vaccine makers compete in the marketplace?”
Read “Alabama Sorority Gets Official Blessing for 600-Person Farm Party Just in Time for Holidays” at Daily Beast.
Read “Dolly Parton partly funded Moderna Covid vaccine research” at The Guardian.
Read “GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa tests positive for Covid-19” at CNN.
Read “Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Trump’s response to the pandemic: ‘Frankly, he hasn’t been any help’” at MSNBC.
Read “Trump’s post-election tantrum is holding up federal vaccine planning” at The Verge.
Read “What we know about face masks has changed. Here's what experts say and which states mandate masks” at USA Today.
Read “FDA Approves First At-Home Coronavirus Test” at KCRW.
Read “McEnany calls state coronavirus restrictions for Thanksgiving 'Orwellian'“ at The Hill.
Read “Tyson managers bet money on how many workers would contract COVID-19” at Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Read “CDC urges Americans against traveling for Thanksgiving as coronavirus outbreak worsens” at CNBC.
Read “U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 250,000” at National Review.
Read “Ben Carson says he used unproven COVID-19 treatment recommended by MyPillow CEO” at The Hill.
Read “Biden calls for national mask mandate to fight COVID-19” at Al Jazeera.
Read “Reporters Blow Up at Covid Task Force For Ducking Questions at End of” at Mediaite.
Read “Tennessee mayor won’t require COVID masks until Holy Spirit says so” at Alabama.
Miscellany Cultural Items:
Read “Trump's next move might be even more dangerous than his presidency” at MSNBC. “Trump's term is ending, but the fight against the extremism he stirred up is far from over.”
Read “The invention of mirrors and why they matter” at Boing Boing.
Read “BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost in Stock Deal With Verizon Media” at Wall Street Journal.
Read “Big Retailers Made Nearly $15 Billion During the Pandemic, But Most Halted Hazard Pay” at Public Citizen.
Read “Now More Than Ever, Brandon Stanton Makes People Feel Less Alone” at New York Times.
Internationalities:
Read “Russia moves to protect Putin from prosecution” at BBC. “The Russian parliament's lower house - the Duma - has backed a bill granting Russian presidents and their families immunity from criminal prosecution after they leave office.”
Read “Israel scrambles to expand settlement in anticipation of changing U.S. policy under Biden” at Globe and Mail.
Read “Pompeo makes unprecedented visits to Israeli settlement in West Bank and Golan” at BBC.
Politics And Sucheries:
Read “The Troubling Reason the Electoral College Exists’ at Time.
Read “The End of Trump? Biden & Harris Claim Victory in Historic Election, Vowing to Heal Divided Nation” at Democracy Now.
Read “Trump Sought Options for Attacking Iran to Stop Its Growing Nuclear Program” at New York Times.
Read the opinion piece “Republicans are letting Trump wage war on democracy” at Washington Post.
Read “Joe Biden wins Georgia, flipping the state for Democrats” at AP News.
Read “Rahm Emanuel under consideration to become Biden's transportation secretary” at CNN.
This Week In Political Corruption:
Read “Evidence suggests several state Senate candidates were plants funded by dark money” at Local 10.
Read “Sore loser or victim? Trump voters struggle with president’s role in defeat” at Washington Post. "A majority of Republican voters — 70 percent — say the election was unfair, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll"
Read “Trump Administration Ending Like It Began: Lying About Crowd Size” at Slate.
Read “Ga. secretary of state says fellow Republicans are pressuring him to find ways to exclude legal ballots” at Washington Post. “Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says he has come under increasing pressure from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots in an effort to reverse Trump's loss.”
Read “Graham says he's talked to officials in two states about election” at The Hill. “After Graham told reporters that he spoke with election officials, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) said on Twitter that Graham had not spoken with her.”
Read “Trump Fires Election Security Director Who Corrected Voter Fraud Disinformation” at NPR. “President Trump has fired Christopher Krebs, a top cybersecurity official who affirmed the security of the election and rebutted rumors and baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud that Trump promoted.”
Read “Trump Doesn't Have To Win In Court To Erode Trust In Voting” at NPR.
Read “'People will stop believing in the process.' Why Donald Trump's Legal Strategy Is Dangerous Even If It's Likely to Fail” at Time. “Rudy Giuliani, to the chagrin of many, is candidly telling associates the goal of the campaign's lawsuits is sow enough doubt among GOP that legislatures in swing states punt and appoint their own electors”
Read “Trump Supporters Echo False Claims of Fraud: Election Update” at Bloomberg.
Read “Trump Campaign Attorneys Admit ‘There Is No Evidence’ of ‘Any Fraud’ in Connection with Challenged Ballots in Bucks County, Pa” at Law and Crime.
Read “Trump’s Strategy for Contesting the Election: Throw Out Black People’s Votes” at Mother Jones.
Read “Michigan Republican leaders going to White House Friday; Trump calls GOP canvassers” at Chicago Tribune.
Read “Illinois Sen. Duckworth says 'silence is deafening' from Republicans on Trump's election maneuvers” at Yahoo News.
Read “Inside Rudy Giuliani's attempt to sow chaos on behalf of Trump and steal the election” at CNN.
Read “'Did you all watch My Cousin Vinny?' Sweating Rudy Giuliani presents 'evidence' for 'massive voting fraud' as hair dye runs down his face - alongside 'elite legal strike force' who claim Joe Biden's win is a Venezuelan plot they uncovered on the internet” at Daily Mail.
Music-Related News and Such:
Read “Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires Exit Country Music Association After 2020 CMAs Didn’t Honor John Prine” at Pitchfork.
Read ‘Melvins Announce New Album Working With God, Share “I F**k Around” and “Bouncing Rick” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “Morrissey and BMG Part Ways” at Pitchfork. “Morrissey accused the label of dictating “how their artists should behave”.
Read “Run The Jewels Release “No Save Point” Video, Announce Craft Beer Collaboration” at Treble.
Read “Electrosoul's SAULT Center Themselves Around Blackness on 'UNTITLED (Black Is)'“ at Pop Matters.
Read “Guitar Center Is Officially Filing for Bankruptcy” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “Bandcamp Launches New Livestreaming Service for Artists” at Pitchfork.
Read “Lo-Fi Hip-Hop Has Become One Of The Internet’s Most Popular Subgenres; Is Slowed & Reverb Next?” at Okay Player.
Read “Anti-Flag release vol. 2 of new protest/benefit single ft. Tom Morello, Marcia of The Skints & more” at Brooklyn Vegan.
Read “Why Is The Obscure B-Side “Harness Your Hopes” Pavement’s Top Song On Spotify? It’s Complicated” at Stereogum.
Read “How Elektra Records ushered in the alternative music revolution—and then helped kill it” at AV Club.
Read “It Is Time For The Youth To Wake Up!" Songhoy Blues Interviewed” at Clash Music.
Read “Steve Earle Covers Justin Townes Earle’s “Harlem River Blues” for Upcoming Memorial Record” at Jambands.
Read “How Leonard Cohen Haunted the Trump Era” at Pitchfork.
Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:
Read “John Mulaney joins Seth Meyers’ ‘Late Night’ writing staff” at Brooklyn Vegan.
Read “Nelly Cast as Chuck Berry in New Buddy Holly Biopic” at Pitchfork.
Design/Artsy Things:
Watch “this expert apple sculptor create juicy delights” at Boing Boing.
Read “Art Yard publishes Sun Ra inspired photography book” at The Wire.
Science/Animals/Technology/Environment/Public Health/Etc.:
Read “Vaccine Group Hits $2 Billion 2020 Goal for Low, Middle Income Nations” at Bloomberg.
Read “World's only known white giraffe fitted with tracker to deter poachers” at BBC.
Read “Japanese town enlists terrifying robot wolves to protect them from bears” at Boing Boing.
Read “Technology Promises Connection, but Gen Z Sees a Paradox” at Barna.
Local:
Read “As Stores Close At Phoenix’s Paradise Valley Mall, Future Plans Grow” at KJZZ.