‘A resounding vindication’ It’s over, and it was big. Boris Johnson will return to Downing Street with a big majority after the Conservatives swept aside Labour in its traditional heartlands. The BBC forecast suggests the Tories will get 364 MPs, Labour 203, the SNP 48, the Lib Dems 12, Plaid Cymru four, the Greens one, and the Brexit Party none — giving Conservatives their biggest majority since Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 election victory. At the Financial Times, John Burn-Murdoch, Billy Ehrenberg and Oliver Elliott take a look at how class, turnout and the Brexit party shaped the general election result. Their analysis shows, “Conservatives fared best where turnout fell from the 2017 election — and worse where turnout rose. This suggests that many of those who stayed home in many battleground constituencies were Labour voters.” 
At The New York Times, Mark Landler and Stephen Castle call the result “a resounding vindication” for Boris Johnson. “Defying predictions that he would be tossed out of his job, the prime minister is now assured of leading Britain through its most momentous transition since World War II,” they write. And as Joshua Benton points out, “Man, it has been a rough stretch for liberal anglophone parties and their alleged colored ‘walls’ in northern industrial areas.” If you’re still trying to get your arms around what happened, “Good morning all. You'll want to read this,” tweets Yasmeen Serhan. At The Atlantic, Tom McTague writes that It’s Boris Johnson’s Britain, Now. Chris Mason says, “Let me join the army of people recommending this long read from @TomMcTague.” Adds Matthew Wells, “If you *really* want to understand why Johnson won, this barnstormer of a piece by @TomMcTague is the one to read.” And one more endorsement, via Elian Peltier, “‘Britain had its bastard, and decided to vote him in.’ That's to get you to click. The rest is half a profile of Johnson, half a political analysis and it’s really helpful.” Labour’s loss As for Jeremy Corbyn, Polly Toynbee writes in a column for The Guardian that, devoid of agility, charisma and credibility, Corbyn has led Labour into the abyss. She asks, “How bad did Labour have to be to let this sociopathic, narcissistic, glutton for power beat them?” But Jason Cowley says it’s “Terrific hypocrisy by Toynbee after she spent so long boosting Corbynism.” In his column for The Guardian, Gary Younge argues that it’s not enough to blame Corbyn, Brexit or the media. Labour won’t win again until it works out why it lost, he writes, and Oscar Reyes says, “There, buried under the mountain of shit hot takes, is a bit of wisdom.” Friday the 13th news 
Here in the U.S. this morning, the House Judiciary Committee voted over Republican objections to advance two articles of impeachment accusing President Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, as Nicholas Fandos reports at The New York Times. John Wagner and Colby Itkowitz are following the developments with live updates at The Washington Post. Tweets Bernie Tafoya, “History. Friday the 13th very unlucky for President Donald J. Trump as the U-S House Judiciary Committee approves two articles of impeachment against him. The matter now goes to the full House.” According to Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, For Trump, Impeachment Is a Political Plus, but a Personal Humiliation. However, they write, “Mr. Trump’s mood has actually improved in the past couple of weeks, advisers say, as Republicans have risen to his defense.” Also, “He set a record for his presidency on Thursday with 123 total tweets in a single day,” so...congratulations on that achievement, we guess? !!  In their new piece for The Wall Street Journal, ‘Just Having Fun’: Giuliani Doubles Down on Ukraine Probes, Rebecca Ballhaus, Julie Bykowicz and Thomas Grove reveal that Trump’s personal attorney is escalating his push for investigations — yes, that same effort that helped spark the impeachment inquiry. Natasha Bertrand tweets, “!! Giuliani told the WSJ that Trump is still asking him about the dirt he's digging up in Ukraine. ‘What did you get?’ Trump asked Giuliani upon returning from Kiev (according to Giuliani).”
Meanwhile, “The Trump administration is concealing sensitive conversations about Ukraine between top officials at DOD and OMB, we report tonight. It blacked out emails that a judge told them to turn over to us. We will file a protest with the court tomorrow.” R. Jeffrey Smith links to his reporting at The Center for Public Integrity, Trump administration resists Ukraine disclosures ordered by court. “So, no – this isn’t the end. We’re getting a second batch of documents on December 20th. As journalists, we demand the information that the public needs. We’re ready to take on another legal battle,” CPI tweets. Of course he might not debate Some more from Haberman on Trump’s psyche, this time with Annie Karni of the Times: Will Trump Debate a Democrat in 2020? He’s Not So Sure. He may just decide to sit it out, depending on “which media personality will be chosen as the debate moderator.” But Jamil Smith points out, “Trump could sit on his couch eating KFC until next November and would get 40 percent of the vote, because white patriarchy. He can barely read or put two sentences together without uttering a malaprop or something traitorous. Of course he might not debate.” To give it a bit more alarming context, Olga Lautman tweets, “I'm not sure how everyone doesn’t fully grasp that we are in danger and have been for quite awhile. Warned years ago that Trump is taking notes from Putin and his other authoritarian thugs. Not debating candidates is exactly what Putin does 3rd term=Putin.” Journalists doing journalism David Mack links to this “Massive @haleaziz scoop who obtained a memo in which an ICE whistleblower says two immigrants got preventable surgeries and two were given the wrong drugs. Four died — one after getting ‘grossly negligent’ care.” In A Secret Report Exposes Health Care For Jailed Immigrants, Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News reveals horrifying allegations about the medical care immigrants receive in ICE detention, including a child’s forehead partially removed, four deaths and the wrong medicine. Tweets Matt Berman, “Wild @Haleaziz scoop, who regularly has wild scoops. But this one…” At ProPublica, Jessica Huseman, Emily Palmer and Heather Schroering reveal The Price of America’s Inability to Track Child Deaths from Abuse and Neglect: Sometimes, More Lives. Huseman shares, “In 2015, @emilyepalmer and I decided to build a database of every child we could find record of who'd died of abuse and neglect. Today, we're publishing it.” “Journalists doing journalism discover the country continues to do a horrific job of understanding precisely how bad child abuse really is,” tweets Chris Vanderveen. Adds Rachael Larimore, “This is a heartbreaking, infuriating story, the kind of journalism that is both more important and more overlooked than ever. Kudos to @JessicaHuseman and @emilyepalmer.” More news Michael Finnegan of the Los Angeles Times reports that Bernie Sanders has endorsed a California congressional candidate with a long history of making crude and degrading comments about women and provocative statements about Jews, Muslims and other groups. Cenk Uygur, founder and co-host of “The Young Turks,” is running for Congress to replace Katie Hill. In Canada, “BREAKING: Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is resigning after sources tell Global News he used Conservative Party money to pay for the private-school education of his children.” Amanda Connolly links to her coverage of the story at Global News, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer to resign imminently (154,000+ shares). Lingling Wei of The Wall Street Journal is reporting that China Offers No Confirmation on U.S. Trade Deal. Tweets Karel Mercx, “President Trump has signed off on a so-called phase-one pact | China Offers No Confirmation on U.S. Trade Deal | With every millimeter that the trade deal comes closer, the stock market rises. I wouldn't be in a hurry either.” “A Reuters special report calls out Refinitiv (which pays Reuters $325m a year for its news) for blocking Reuters reports on the Hong Kong protests.” Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson links to that Reuters Special Report by Steve Stecklow, Refinitiv used filter to block Reuters reports on Hong Kong protests. Make your own Johnson joke 
Hoo boy. OK, as Julia Wong says, “I’m not sure I would say this was a *welcome* distraction from the UK election returns for the Guardian west coast bureau, but it was definitely took our minds off the exit poll for a bit.” Brace yourself, fair warning, etc etc: The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports, thousands of 'penis fish' appear on California beach. Yes, “‘thousands’ of pink, throbbing, phallic creatures wound up pulsating along a beach about 50 miles north of San Francisco,” she writes, and oh lordy, there are photos. “Just in case you thought the UK election results would be the most surprising thing you saw this morning,” as Alfred Joyner says. Clearly, “Mother Nature is trying to tell us something and she's not being subtle," tweets Paul Harris. But look at it this way: “A beach full of dicks is truly the metaphor for our times,” tweets Steve Dinneen. Weekend reads Find out why Joe Fox says, “Sarah’s writing is giving me chills.” Sarah Kaplan’s essay for The Washington Post’s Outlook, Ghosts of the future, tells the story of a massive Canadian fossil trove that reminds us how fleeting life on Earth can be — and how much peril we’re in. As she tweets, “The grand sweep of geologic history can make human lives seem small & meaningless. But I view it as a chance to make meaning. Of all the creatures to walk this Earth, we are the first with the chance to shape its future. What will we do with it?” 
Joe Pinsker says, “This @studiesinhope piece has some really lovely observations about what it meant for families to have a shared landline,” which is something you probably hadn’t thought about before. In her piece for The Atlantic on How the Loss of the Landline Is Changing Family Life, Julia Cho points out, “I’ll get it, He’s not here right now, and It’s for you are all phrases that are on their way out of the modern domestic vernacular.” At The Wall Street Journal, Rachael Levy explains How the 1% Scrubs Its Image Online. Tweets Geoffrey Rogow, “Meet the Austin company you can pay to make sure bad news about you gets buried in google. Terrific reporting by @rachael_levy.” As Matthew Belloni tweets, “This week’s @THR cover is the annual Women in Entertainment issue, and actress-producer-entrepreneur-activist @ReeseW pulls exactly zero punches in this story.” At The Hollywood Reporter, Lacey Rose shows us How Reese Witherspoon Took Charge of Her Career and Changed Hollywood. And Poppy Harlow notices, “Look at ‘Little Miss Type A’ now — BOOM! Bravo @ReeseW ‘Uh-uh, you can’t tell me no and you can’t pat me on the head and say, oh, aren’t you cute...Does it bother people when Kobe Bryant or LeBron James make their contract?’” | 
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