(Apologies for the resend, the first email was a previously saved draft.)
Editor’s Note: I’m off to the Oregon Coast for a much-needed week of, among other things, reading actual books by an actual fire, blissfully disengaged from the news. TheNewsGal will be back in your inbox Nov. 22.
Election
(Jabin Botsford, Washington Post)
Voices from the fight: An oral history of the four-year movement to defeat Donald Trump. Settle in, friends. This is terrific. (Washington Post, ~42 min.)
The danger in white moderates setting Biden’s agenda. Tressie McMillan Cottom makes the case. (New York Times Opinion, ~6 min.)
The support for President Trump is a disgrace, but the future is not hopeless. Roxane Gay on where we go from here. (New York Times Opinion, ~6 min.)
America’s next authoritarian will be much more competent. No rest for the weary — this will keep me up at night for the near future. (The Atlantic, ~9 min.)
Trump has survived one impeachment, 26 accusations of sexual misconduct, and an estimated 4,000 lawsuits. That run of good luck may well end, perhaps brutally, now that Biden has won. A deep dive into Trump’s various paths to prison. (New Yorker, ~28 min.)
All eyes are on Georgia in January as both Senate races head to runoffs. Meet Raphael Warnock, who would be the state’s first Black senator if he pulls out a win. (Mother Jones, ~15 min.)
Covid-19
To hell with self-care. Let’s just lie on the floor and scream together. Yes, let’s! (Slate, ~5 min.)
What was fun? As we adjust to the “new normal,” something’s missing. As I read this, I considered my own experience during the pandemic, and realized there have been just two times I truly had FUN. (The Goods, ~16 min.)
Trump voters showed up because of the pandemic, not in spite of it. Now this is interesting ... (GEN, ~5 min.)
The best of the rest
(Matt Mason & Sam Whitney, Wired)
A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack. Just fantastic from start to finish. (Wired, ~15 min.)
The corporate feminism of self-improvement cult/pyramid scheme/sex trafficking ring NXIVM. God, this story. Just read it. (Paris Review, ~23 min.)
Confronting the age of hate in America: “We are, none of us, especially given the whiteness — the anti-Blackness — coded within us all by white supremacy, as far from the Nazi as we want to be.” Oof. (Bookforum, ~17 min.)
The time I was bitten by a bear and didn’t know it. OMG. (Outside, ~6 min.)
Americans with disabilities of all kinds make up one-sixth of our population, but the ADA is failing them at every turn. Here’s how. Told through a series of personal stories, this story has stayed with me. (Gizmodo, ~35 min.)
What is the internet doing to boomers’ brains? A tough read. (HuffPost, ~16 min.)
An ocean separated them. A surfboard connected them. 2020 has a happy story after all. This is lovely. (Sports Illustrated, ~14 min.)
If you read one thing this week
“May we all claim the right to grow out of our past selves.” Amen. (Tiny Letter, ~4 min.)
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Thanks for reading.
Kirsten