Morning Reads for National Jukebox Day (November 25)
Good morning, and happy Day-Before-Thanksgiving! I’ll be prepping pies for tomorrow much of this afternoon. However, in totally unrelated-to-Thanksgiving news, it’s National Jukebox Day, which is dedicated to frontline and essential workers this year. That Waffle House is one of the major partners made this especially important to share with my fellow Georgians. Here’s how to celebrate.
Now, let’s get on to the news.
Pat Conroy
- In the story that will probably haunt them for the foreseeable future, Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are again facing questions about their stock trades from last January.
- House Democrats have accused the Air Force of “trumpeting the placement of a new aircraft operating base in Georgia” in order to influence the outcome of the runoffs in favor of the incumbents.
- If you’re wondering why so many of Sen. Loeffler’s attacks on Reverend Raphael Warnock focus on his faith, this piece explains it well.
- As of Monday, 762,000 absentee ballots have been requested for the January runoff election.
- Rep. Rick Allen (GA-12) has tested positive for COVID.
- Governor Brian Kemp has again encouraged, but not required, mask wearing amid a surge in the state’s COVID cases. (Alternate link.)
- Five years after the state legalized treatment, the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission has opened applications from businesses to manufacture medical marijuana in the state. (Alternate link.)
- If you only have time for one article this morning, I highly recommend Georgia Health News‘s deep dive into Georgia Power’s land buys over the past two decades as a way to shield it from coal ash cleanup costs (which, as Terri included in the Morning Reads yesterday, they’re already trying to force onto customers).
Alice Walker
- The Washington Post has this fun, handy graphic to keep up with President-elect Joe Biden’s selections for his cabinet.
- Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is expected to appear at the Pennsylvania GOP’s voter fraud event alongside Rudy Giuliani.
- Here’s a look at how Michigan – a state with clear results in the presidential election – became a “national embarrassment” over baseless voter fraud claims.
- In actual fraud news, prisoners in California have carried out the largest scheme in the state’s history by claiming $1 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits.
- Fox News has reached a settlement with Seth Rich’s parents over the false story regarding his murder.
- Here are the ways in which President-elect Biden could push for more COVID aid.
- Yesterday, 2,100 COVID deaths were reported in the United States, and it’s set to get much worse. Please, please be safe.
Flannery O’Connor
- A former North Korean gymnast successfully vaulted the 12-foot barbed wire fence surrounding the country in order to escape into South Korea.
- 2020 is the 400th anniversary of the First Thanksgiving, but the Wampanoag continue to struggle for recognition.
About Author
Holly Croft
Holly is an archivist at one of Georgia's institutions of higher learning. In a past life, she was a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill. She cares a lot about records management, open records laws, and privacy laws. Political persuasion? It's complicated. What's not complicated is that she's proudly equal parts Bulldog and Tar Heel.
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Why did they let the turkey join the band?
It had the drumsticks.
I hope everyone has a good holiday.
Words to live by from this week’s Flagpole: “Zoom Thanksgiving is better than ICU Christmas.”
https://flagpole.com/news/news-features/2020/11/18/celebrating-thanksgiving-safely-in-a-pandemic/
“….attacks on Reverend Raphael Warnock focus on his faith…”
One of the interesting issues for people of religious faith is the process of reconciling their political beliefs with their religious beliefs. It certainly is for me, challenging if you’re thoughtful. But invoking religion when discussing politics is fraught with possibilities, not all of them positive.
The Georgia 5th Congressional District (mostly DeKalb County) race of 1984 comes to mind. The Congressional seat had been occupied for several years by one Elliot Levitas, a local-boy-done-good middle of the road Democrat who had this old fashioned belief in serving his constituents. Mr. Levitas was also of the Hebrew faith.
In the election campaign of 1984, one Patrick Swindall ran a curious campaign which included extensive visits to evangelical church groups around the District. It was never blatant, certainly not as blatant as today’s campaign materials, but there was under-the-radar anti-semitism. Levitas lost that race and moved on to other productive enterprises. The Golden Boy had won the election and all was well with the world. At least for a while. By 1988, at least one of the Ten Commandments had morphed into the Ten Recommended Practices, notably Number 9, the one about bearing false witness. Swindall was soon out and the District moved on.
Whatever political advantage had been gained in the churches of the District was presumably lost when those voters took a long hard look at the realities of their getting involved with politics. What seemed to be a good idea at one moment was no longer quite so.
A minister’s challenge is to present the ideal world and to encourage their congregation to seek it out. While noble sounding, that notion doesn’t seem to work out so well in politics. My point is that politicians can invoke religion, but they do so at considerable risk.