The Week in Review - October 23rd-30th
Jovita Moore, The Metaverse, The Braves, Georgia State football, and top news
Welcome to the King Williams newsletter. I am a documentary filmmaker, journalist, podcast host, and author based in Atlanta, Georgia. This is a newsletter covering the hidden connections of Atlanta to everything else. This is for my dad, stay strong!
The last day to vote in the 2021 Atlanta municipal elections is this upcoming Tuesday, November 2nd.
Visit the Secretary of State’s My Voter Page to verify voter registration status and election day polling locations. This comes as early voter turnout is abysmal, of the nearly 400,000 registered voters in Atlanta, only 31,000 have voted.
For some great resources on what this election means I suggest:
Where the Party at Podcast - Apple Podcasts/Spotify and YouTube (features video interviews with top-5 mayoral candidates)
Atlanta Civic Circle - Voter Resource Guide 2021
Peachstate Politics - How would Buckhead vote if it were a city?
Reporter News/ Atlanta Intown - Atlanta Mayors Guide (contains statements from several candidates in multiple races)
Mainline Zine - Who’s endorsing the candidates in the Atlanta elections?
Rest In Peace Jovita Moore
Beloved Channel 2 television anchor Jovita Moore has died. Moore succumbed to brain cancer after making her diagnosis public earlier this year. Moore’s family has listed two of her most important charities Our House Atlanta or The National Brain Tumor Society if you would like to make a donation to cancer research. Moore is originally from New York City and a graduate of Bennington College. Prior to reaching Atlanta, Moore had stops in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee before arriving at WSB Tv in 1998.
If you would like to remember Jovita’s personality, here are a few interviews that capture who she was:
The Atlanta Podcast (Spotify/Apple Podcasts) - Jovita Moore is On TAP?!
No Chill Radio (YouTube) - #WCW Talks the Evolution of News
Karen Minton has announced that she has cancer
Another beloved Atlanta news personality, Channel 2 WSB Tv’s Karen Minton, has announced that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Minton has recently undergone successful surgery and is recovering at home. Minton, a 33-year news veteran retired in 2018 from WSB. Minton was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in September.
DEEP DIVE: What does college football realignment mean for schools like Georgia State
This installment of Media Monday’s is dedicated to college football and television rights fees. Whether or not you watch the games the impact of college football on the greater American collegiate system may be undergoing a fundamental shift. For schools such as Georgia State, Kennesaw State, and even Georgia Southern, this latest round of conference realignment could see a reckoning on two decades of spending related to collegiate athletics— in particular football.
You can read Part ONE more by clicking here.
You can read Part TWO by clicking here
New Podcast: Ben Moore of 247 Sports Interview on Georgia State athletics
In this interview, I sit down with a fellow Georgia State University alum, Ben Moore (@BenMoore247 on Twitter). Ben is one of the writers at 247 Sports a CBS Sports affiliated sports blog dedicated to Georgia State University athletics. We talk about Ben's recent article on why Georgia State didn't move up during the most recent round of college football realignment.
College football is big money and Georgia State was rumored to be listed on the list of schools to be potentially moved up from the Sun Belt, the 10th out of 10 of the biggest college athletic conference to potentially the Big 12, the 5th out of 10 biggest college athletic conferences.
You can read Ben’s article here: Five Reasons why GSU is staying in the Sun Belt.
This episode is available on SoundCloud, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, and here on Substack!
The Braves are in the World Series
The Braves are facing off against the Houston Astros in the World Series. This is the first trip for the Braves since 1999, and the first since the team relocated to Cobb in 2017. The Astros are the heavy favorites as this is their 3rd World Series appearance in the last 5 years. For the Braves, this is a team on the rise, as they made it just short of a trip last year to the World Series. Currently, they are up 2-1, with the possibility of closing out the series in Atlanta, on Sunday if they win today and Sunday.
You may want to also read these previous issues:
July 16th, 2020 - Rest In Power Hammering Hank
January 23rd, 2021 - The Washington football team is changing their name...are the Atlanta Braves next?
Red Clay News
Stone Mountain Park is trying to figure out what to do next
A judge has dismissed a Sons of Confederate Veterans lawsuit to restore a Confederate monument back to downtown Decatur Square. The Stone Mountain Memorial Association is seeking to find a new company to manage the park ahead of the summer 2022 departure of Hirschend Entertainment. This issue was mentioned in my January deep dive The History of Stone Mountain and the KKK- Part One and Part Two.
From Part Two:
This triple layer of bureaucracy, private enterprise, and historic society have made it nearly impossible to implement any changes. But recent rumors of Hirscend Entertainment potentially moving on from managing the property despite renewing a 35-year lease in 2012, is a potential sign of change. While in 2018, Georgia Democratic nominee for Governor Stacey Abrams has indicated clearly that she supports the removal of the confederate monuments.
But we’ve seen places such as Decatur over the summer and other metro Atlanta places circumvent these rules. While in the city of Atlanta, there have been changes to street names, and even Grady High School (not a confederate, but very racist) has moved on to change its name.
Due to the current trend of the GOP using ‘culture wars’ and anti-BLM politics to get closer to electoral supremacy once again, don’t be surprised if this becomes a 2022 issue. They may take back the Virginia Governor’s office on this strategy.
Herschel Walker is emerging as a threat to Warnock + GOP challengers
Former UGA running back Herschel Walker is emerging as a threat in the US Senate race against current US Senator Raphael Warnock. Walker has already raised millions of dollars in addition to receiving the endorsement of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. His primary opponent Gary Black has tried to attack, but nothing sticks.
David Perdue is being rumored to primary Governor Kemp
There are reports that former Senator David Perdue is considering to run against Governor Kemp in the 2022 Republican primary. Perdue, recently lost his seat to Senator Jon Ossoff back in January. Perdue, should he run he a reflection of two varying ends of the party, fiscal conservatives versus culture warriors.
Other news:
KLB is featured in the New York Times alongside 7 other Black women mayors.
Chamblee is seeking bids for a new ‘road diet’ on Chamblee Tucker Road.
Hugh Howell Marketplace in Tucker has announced several new tenants.
Concerns on millions of acres of marshland along the Folly River being effective against rising tides are growing.
A Georgia man spent $57,000 of a Covid-19 relief loan on a Pokemon card.
Covid-19 has killed as many Georgia cops as accidents.
Railroad company Norfolk Southern is donating a large portion of its archive to the Atlanta History Center.
Georgia’s unemployment rate fell to an all-time low of 3.2% in September
A 23-year-old Valdosta man has been arrested after continually showing up to crime scenes claiming to be an uncover agent.
Former Avondale Estates Mayor Allan Kirwan, has passed away at 76.
Fulton County Public Schools may allow students the option to go maskless if less than 1% of the school population tests positive for covid-19.
Despite the rumors, a popular Peachtree Center office building won’t be converting from office to residential.
After an investigation, the GBI has concluded that there is no evidence to prove ballot harvesting claims of the 2020 election were legit.
Invest Atlanta has approved a $500,000 TAD grant for a Grove Park commercial development that will feature healthcare provider Humana as an anchor.
MARTA has finally unveiled a proposal to build a new 16-mile Bus Rapid Transit project in Clayton County.
National News
Anti-vaxxers are doing the most
Florida’s top doctor is refusing to wear a mask after being asked by a cancer patient at a recent hearing. While A California man has been arrested after running his vehicle into a crowd of anti-vax protestors.
In addition, several thousand anti-vax protestors broke through barricades in Brooklyn to protest the city’s vaccine mandates and in support of NBA player Kyrie Irving who is currently sitting out the season on his refusal to take the vaccine. Irving has become a poster child for the anti-vax movement, which is a complete switch from his stances last year as he decided to not play in the NBA due to focusing on addressing police brutality.
Also, this happened:
Rapper/actor Ice Cube has turned down a $9 million dollar movie deal over his refusal to take the covid-19 vaccine
An Instagram Famous piglet has come out as an anti-vaxxer.
There is now an anti-vaxxer conference to spread more misinformation.
And then there is Florida.
Virginia might be going Red because of Right Wing tactics, this maybe a preview of things to come
The Right is taking their country back using Cancel Culture, anti-BLM, and manufactured Covid-19 backlash. Also there is no plan for Joe Biden to give undocumented immigrants $450,000 in reparations, that came from Breitbart one of the most ardent sources of disinformation and white nationalism on the planet.
There’s a new misinformation Tucker Carlson documentary airing on Fox
Tucker Carlson, host of the most popular cable news program in the country is launching a new three-part documentary series on Fox news this upcoming week. The documentary attempts to re-contextualize the January 6 insurrection as one of civil disobedience and defiance. The effort is one of many that has been happening over the last few months recontextualize the insurrection as patriotism while distancing itself from Trump, the white nationalist ties, and the insurrection itself.
Carlson has been called out before about his overt dog whistles and covert white nationalist phrasings. Carlson has been a galvanizing force in the culture wars and white nationalist rhetoric. Carlson’s program has been more successful than actual white nationalist recruiting efforts. Carlson, a son of wealthy parents has been the linchpin for the American right/conservative populist movement over the last decade.
The Virginia Governors Race
One of the most abrupt turns in recent memory and a reflection on the strength of both right wing culture wars and cable news, there’s a high probability the Democrats could lose the Governor’s seat in Virginia. This comes after having success less than a year ago in the state. Republicans have managed to create wedge issues out of COVID-19, mask mandates, misunderstanding of critical race theory, and school system shouting matches.
This also includes a growing number of Ethiopians era trans who live in the Virginia area who are upset with the Biden administration for their lack of response to the Tigray situation. The Democrats ardent cultural pushback in this Virginia governor‘s race could be how the Republicans come back from the jaws of defeat with victory. Add in Gerrymandering and voter suppression the GOP will take back the Senate, the House, and dominate almost every governor’s race in 2022 unless something changes.
Facebook has changed its name to Meta
Facebook announced this week that it has changed its overall company structure, within that change, Facebook Inc is now a part of a new larger conglomerate called Meta. Meta is short for Metaverse, a concept that is the integration of all things internet. In short, it’s The Matrix. The long version is it’s all those sci-fi movies on capitalism + corporate control being everywhere—into the metaverse we go.
The term metaverse was adopted from the 1992 sci-fi novel “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson. But more people were aware of a version of this hyper internet-based reality from a slew of 1990s movies including 1995’s Ghost In The Shell, 1999’s The Matrix, and this year’s Free Guy starring Ryan Reynolds. The idea of the metaverse grew in popularity from the 2018 film Ready Player One by Stephen Spielberg, based on the 2011 novel of the same name. Matthew Ball is the person most associated with popularizing the idea of the metaverse as he’s been the thought leader in the space for the last few years. Ball is a former Global Head of strategy for Amazon who’s since preached ad nausem on how the future internet will be connected everywhere devices + fully integrated experiences. If you saw the movie Her, think about how the IRL version of the Metaverse could be.
But with the ubiquity of smartphones, broadband + 4G internet, wifi, and mobile gaming grew, so has the idea of a unique digital experience. Video games have been at the forefront of virtual-based world-building since the 1990s, but have grown with the emergence of augmented reality games like 2015’s Pokemon Go. This also coincides with the rise in cryptocurrency, digital retailers (Shopify/Amazon), streaming video (Netflix), streaming music (Spotify), and streaming gaming (Twitch). Or the Chinese-based WeChat which is all of these into one.
The idea has grown exponentially with the rise of multiplatform social media sites and apps like Facebook. Add in platform-agnostic games like Fortnite and Minecraft, you can see why Facebook wants to get into the metaverse. The company needs to be a part of the next all-inclusive internet. All internet all the time. This comes as the company is worried about young people completely abandoning its products (Instagram) because of rivals (Snapchat/TikTok) or avoiding Facebook altogether because it’s ‘old’.
I would suggest checking out more on the metaverse:
Ben Thompson of Stratechery
Ben Thompson of Stratechery’s conversation with Mark Zuckerberg
Matthew Ball - The Metaverse primer and The Framework for the Metaverse
Means of Creation - Playing games to earning a living in the metaverse (Spotify/Apple Podcasts)
Other national news
Civil Rights legend Claudette Colvin, the teenager who refused to move from her seat in Montgomery before Rosa Parks in 1955 is seeking to have her arrest record expunged.
Updated FBI statics shows that the agency undercounted hate crimes in 2020.
Montana Democrats want an investigation of the State Attorney General.
A growing number of ‘stop the steal’ election supporters are running for office nationwide.
The state of Florida has barred professors from the University of Florida from testifying in a key case on voting rights.
NY Attorney General Letitia James is running for Governor.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is now facing criminal charges of sexual harassment.
A Texas Republican lawmaker is asking schools to report 850 books deemed discomforting for (white) students.
International News
The US government and businesses are under attack by an army of Russian cyber hackers, this includes the trillion-dollar company Microsoft.
Sudan has just been overthrown via a military coup. The coup which has been in development for months reflects ongoing tensions in the East African region.
The Tigray region of Ethiopia is now experiencing airstrikes from the government on the cities, sparking more attention to ethnic cleansing charges.
Australian Open tennis tournament will allow for non-vaccinated players to enter the country for the 2022 tournament provided they adhere to the 14-day quarantine + mandatory testing.
Brazil is seeking to have zero deforestation in the country by 2028.
The UN has warned that global climate goals are currently off track and could lead to greater warming.
Galactic News
Jeff Bezos is seeking to open humanity’s first ‘business park’ in space.
Make sure you go vote! This is also for my dad, stay strong!