A rare and truly heartbreaking byline We’re starting off with something a little different today: “Meghan Markle, with perhaps the bravest and most candid writing I’ve seen in some time, discloses she had a miscarriage recently.” Derek Wallbank links to the New York Times op-ed by Meghan Markle, The Losses We Share. “A rare and truly heartbreaking byline for Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex,” says Erica Hernandez. Adds Guadalupe Gonzalez, “Meghan Markle wrote a deeply personal essay about her miscarriage to try to destigmatize grief Like @chrissyteigen did before her, Markle, with a single post, has shown women worldwide that it’s OK to talk There’s no need to carry your pain alone anymore.” It’s food for thought for all of us as we head into a holiday season unlike any before. She urges, with “many of us separated from our loved ones, alone, sick, scared, divided and perhaps struggling to find something, anything, to be grateful for — let us commit to asking others, ‘Are you OK?’” Pardon?  So, the president pardoned a turkey, one of the more normal things he’s done this month, and as Jada Yuan shares, “Heroes in the @washingtonpost copy department wrote this headline.” The Washington Post’s Maura Judkis wrote the story, which begins thusly: “Of the two stars of the day, it’s hard to know who needed a pardon more: Corn the Turkey or President Trump.” (Don’t forget Corn’s alternate, Cob.)
It is, after all, pardon season, and in a scoop from Axios’s Jonathan Swan and Zachary Basu that doesn’t seem all that surprising, we learned that Trump has told confidants he plans to pardon Michael Flynn. But Richard J. Tofel points out the “Risk here: if pardoned, Flynn loses his Fifth Amendment rights, and could be forced to testify in, for instance, House Intelligence hearing. Trump might not enjoy that.” In case you need a refresher on the details, Wilson Dizard reminds us, “Flynn thought that he could make a US-Russian alliance against ISIS happen, over the objections of congress and NATO. In the final analysis, he was just clumsily trying to turn a cringey alt-right meme into a real foreign policy, and failed predictably.” The damage is already being done “Your grandkids are going to read about the last 20 days in Michigan -- the lies, the abuses of trust, the brazen attempt to undermine democracy. Based on two dozen+ interviews, with tons of new detail, here’s my first draft of history.” In his piece for Politico Magazine, Tim Alberta gives us The Inside Story of Michigan’s Fake Voter Fraud Scandal, and as Daniel Drezner says, “The tone of this @TimAlberta story about what happened in Michigan over the past month could best be described as a slow boil.” “This whole @TimAlberta piece is fascinating, but make sure to stay for the part about why GOP leadership has embraced conspiracy theory,” tweets Michael Del Moro. Adds Charles Arthur, “Absorbing (and really well-researched) story by @TimAlberta of how one principled Republican in Michigan, Aaron Van Langevelde, stood against the tide of Trump madness in the GOP. Though the damage is already being done.”  Speaking of the damage, at The New York Times, Alexander Burns writes that Trump Stress-Tested the Election System, and the Cracks Showed. That piece is a splash of cold water to the face. “There will be closer elections, ultimately,” Michael Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, told him. “This one wasn’t very close. The fact that people are willing to go down dangerous paths should give us all pause.”
Li also described what we’ve just been through as “Lord of the Flies” moment that revealed just how willing some powerful actors were to enable an undisguised effort to sabotage a free and fair election. Rick Hasen says, “This is the most important piece of the week you are going to read. I was going to write something like this until I saw this from @alexburnsNYT.” And if it’s still too cheery for you, then turn to Tod Mesirow, who says it’s a “well-written, important analysis. we will most likely fail to act, and some will remember when we had a chance to fix things.” Should be embarrassed (but won’t be) Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger has written an op-ed for USA Today noting, My family voted for Trump. He threw us under the bus anyway. Mara Davis shares, “He takes time to call out the obvious, it was a fair & smooth election in GA, trashes Fulton county and @staceyabrams but fails to mention @Perduesenate & @SenatorLoeffler for asking him to resign for doing his job. Saved you a click.” Sonny Bunch thinks, “It’s crazy that this piece even needs to be written and the president and his enablers should be embarrassed about what they’ve argued in Georgia and elsewhere.” As for Perdue, this is “Not a headline you want six weeks out from the runoff,” Steven Shepard notes, linking to the report by Brian Slodysko and Richard Lardner of AP News, With US in COVID-19 panic, Sen. Perdue saw stock opportunity. (The headline is now “Ga. Sen. Perdue boosts wealth with well-timed stock trades.”)  As Slodysko details on Twitter, “When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue sold up to $5 million worth of stock in a company where he once served on the board. Weeks later, after shares nosedived, he bought much of it back — and it’s quadrupled in value since.” How fortunate! “My goodness this just keeps happening to David Perdue. Just so lucky with the stock selling,” tweets Jackie Kucinich.
Self-defeating, small, etc.  On to some more predictably contemptible behavior from the Trump administration on its way out. Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg reports that Mnuchin plans to put $455 billion in funds out of Yellen’s easy reach. Max Abelson urges, “Read this: What Mnuchin is doing is making it virtually impossible for Janet Yellen to deploy $455 billion in unspent Cares Act funding on her own. He'll leave her with less than $80 billion in her pot.”
Bianna Golodryga points out, “This is self-defeating, small, and the opposite of what Paulson did as outgoing Treasury Secretary during the 2008 financial crisis. To quote Lamar Alexander this week: ‘When you are in public life, people remember the last thing you do.’” (Although, from one of Lamar’s constituents, let me just say, he’s one to talk.) And Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News found out that ICE Expelled 33 Immigrant Children Back To Guatemala After A Judge Said They Can’t. He reports that the injunction was issued Wednesday by US Judge Emmet Sullivan minutes before an ICE flight left for Guatemala City with the 33 children. Filmmaker Jess Kelly has an op-ed in The New York Times revealing that Trump’s ‘Favorite Dictator’ Imprisoned Her Husband — to Test Joe Biden. Tweets Avi Asher-Schapiro, “The Egyptian regime just accused @Jeky_Kelly's husband Karim—a prominent human rights worker—of terrorism, & threw him in jail. The US Congress is poised to vote on its $1.4B aid package to Cairo. Here, Jess asks Congress—& Biden—to ‘do the right thing.’” The cost of cozying up to dictators: She writes, “It is no coincidence that Karim has been arrested just as President Trump — who once called Mr. Sisi his ‘favorite dictator’ — is on his way out of office, and the Biden administration is preparing to assume power.” Relentless and crushing Honestie Hodges was handcuffed by the police outside her home in Grand Rapids, Mich., when she was 11, a frightening incident that drew outrage and national headlines in 2017. She died on Sunday at age 14 from Covid-19. Glenn Rifkin has the heartbreaking obituary for her at The New York Times. “From coronavirus. The neverending societally-enforced tragedy of being Black in America. The injustice of this is relentless and crushing. Truly heartbreaking,” tweets Erin Biba. As Bim Adewunmi says, “fucking hell.” “What kind of country are we, that we’ve allowed this to happen, to a little girl?” Laura Nahmias wonders. WTF is this In case you cared, As Their D.C. Days Dwindle, Ivanka and Jared Look for a New Beginning. As Elizabeth Williamson reveals in that New York Times piece, it looks like Javanka will be decamping to Jersey. But also, as Charles P. Pierce puts it, “Pardon me, but what the fck is this shit?” Paraphrasing himself, Daniel Drezner says, “I’ll believe that Jared Kushner is growing into his role as a White House staffer when he stops being the asshole in every setting.” Also in that piece is someone “Just wondering about commemorative plaques over a beer in your car outside the Kushner home,” notes Matthew Kassel. But back to Charles Pierce’s point: “You know, rather than a lifestyle piece about Ivanka and Jared, readers might be better served by a story looking at all the criminal and civil cases they might be subject to in New York City and state once they leave the White House,” tweets Michael Balter. Can’t look away Stuart A. Thompson sets up this next one for us: “so @cwarzel asked some boomers for their facebook logins. then tracked what was shared around the election. it’s a scary look at the ‘information hellscape’ and was far worse than i imagined.”  That’s Charlie Warzel’s New York Times piece on What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers. Tweets Shira Ovide, “Damn, @cwarzel swims in the Facebook feeds of two people, and it is a fascinating look at ‘a sea of contextless news and acrimonious comments revealing their neighbors’ worst selves.’”
Kevin Roose says it’s a “Really good @cwarzel piece that gets at a thing I've noticed among older people in my life. They want Old Facebook back, but they can’t look away from New Facebook, even though it’s making them unhappy.” Media news Greg Burton notes, “For years we've condemned threats against journalists in countries where press freedom isn’t Constitutional bedrock. Here's a story about a photographer at a baseball game in Arizona. Sadly, @azcentral journalists are targeted far too often.” Don’t miss his editorial in the Arizona Republic, In times of conflict, journalists face threats, even in our own community. Zach Buchanan is “Glad @azcentral wrote this. @pjbreenphoto is one of the kindest, most generous people I’ve ever known. No one deserves the kind of dangerous treatment he received -- journalists have been killed over this bullshit! -- and Patrick least of all.” In an essay for UnHerd, Suzanne Moore reveals why she had to leave The Guardian — or “How the @guardian lost the irreplaceable @suzanne_moore in order to appease the dudebros,” tweets Julie Bindel. “If you were bullied by 338 colleagues, what would you do?” Moore asks. Mandy Rhodes quotes from the piece, “‘This is just something I wanted to tell you about a woman saying no. And the ways we say no.’ So, it’s 7.30am & I’m crying reading this @suzanne_moore 💔” In an exclusive for Vice World News, Manisha Krishnan reports that several Penguin Random House Canada employees confronted management about the company’s decision to publish a new book by controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson at an emotional town hall Monday, and dozens more have filed anonymous complaints. Scaachi Koul shares, “Penguin Random House Canada was one of the first places that took my work seriously; I love them and their team a lot. But: their decision to continue to publish Jordan Peterson — over the objections of their staff — is a colossal bummer.” Sources tell Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News that Fox paid seven figures to settle a lawsuit over its bogus Seth Rich conspiracy story. Conveniently, the agreement comes just as Sean Hannity and Fox News president Jay Wallace were due to be deposed. Weird things people do in the desert  It’s probably art, but just in case you missed this story, you should know that A Weird Monolith Was Found in the Utah Desert, and Alan Yuhas wrote about it at The New York Times. Liam Stack says, “I know this is not the point of this story but: ‘We fly pretty low for these surveys so we can identify the gender of the sheep’ uhhhh how low is required for that???” Regardless, “Not a good time, aliens,” Randy Dotinga points out.
A spokesman for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources told Yuhas that it’s “not too uncommon to find weird things that people have been doing out in the desert.” Alrighty. Anyway, the main takeaway, says Jeryl Bier, is that “‘your face is a weird monolith’ will soon be heard in my house.” They *want* you to argue about it  In case you’re not going to be with family this Thanksgiving, here’s something else to argue about. Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott of The New York Times have put together a list of The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century (So Far), and as Alex Marshall says, “Dear Twitter, why not spend today arguing over our new list?”
Matt Singer adds, “You can argue about the picks (they *want* you to argue about the picks) but I’m mostly just blown away by the design of this whole thing. It’s so pretty to scroll through.” A few more | 
How has tech journalism changed over the course of 2020, and what's next for the industry? On Thursday, December 10 at 12:30pm ET / 9:30am PT, 
Be thankful for the opportunity to read and cringe over (but hopefully not be on the sending or receiving end of) 
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