Shes got the news.
She’s got the news. Photo by Elaine Cromie/Getty Images

This presidential election feels like Groundhog Day: How many times does Joe need to win? Today, the Electoral College process went more smoothly than people anticipated. Joe Biden got the votes. The electors pushed Joe past 270, the threshold required to win the presidency.

Let’s check in on today’s porn news before we get into all that…

Pornhub is Verified-Only: The internet’s porn center executed a historic purge today, removing all videos published by non-verified users. If you hop on the site, it’s an orgy of blue checkmarks plugging each other’s holes. Going forward, Pornhub says: “Every piece of Pornhub content is from verified uploaders, a requirement that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitter have yet to institute.” The move comes after the New York Times claimed people uploaded videos of child sexual abuse victims onto the site. Mastercard and Visa then announced they’d stop processing payments on Pornhub, which would impact the entire Mindgeek network (that’s the international megacorp that runs Pornhub). And now, a purge. Sunday evening, Pornhub removed most of their videos. An estimation from Vice:

Before the content purge on Sunday evening, Pornhub hosted around 13.5 million videos according to the number displayed on the site’s search bar, a large number of them from unverified accounts. On Monday morning as of 9 a.m., that search bar is showing only 4.7 million videos, meaning Pornhub removed most of the videos on its site, including the most-viewed non-verified amateur video, which had more than 29 million views. That number briefly went back up to 7.2 million, so at the moment it’s unclear how many videos will be removed.

The first couple-to-be.
The First Couple-to-be. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Back to the Electoral College… Joe Biden gave a speech this evening celebrating his “landslide” 306 electoral votes: “If anyone didn’t know before, they know it now. What beats deep in the hearts of the American people is this: democracy, the right to be heard, to have your vote counted, to choose leaders of this nation, to govern ourselves. In America, politicians don’t take power. People grant power to them.”

During his speech, Biden called out the 17 Republican state attorneys general and 126 Republican representatives who signed on to that insane Texas lawsuit, and he ended the speech by reaching out to Americans who’ve lost loved ones to COVID-19: “My heart goes out to each of you in this dark winter of the pandemic.”

More Republicans acknowledged the facts today: But not nearly enough.

I was listening to NPR this afternoon, and they said “the President continues to tweet conspiracy theories and lies” as if they were reporting that it’s raining in Seattle.

WA Secretary of State Kim Wyman says there’s no proof of mass voter fraud in our recent election: But that hasn’t stopped Trump’s “army of sore losers”—and, pointedly, failed GOP gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp—from unleashing a wave of false theories and threats about our nation’s elections. Crosscut has a good piece about the Washingtonians still fighting the 2020 election results out today, and WA House Minority Leader J. T. Wilcox tweeted this today:

These threats are heinous. Also, what did they say in Chicago again, WA GOP?

Speaking of Chicago: Broadway legend Ann Reinking is dead.


Capitol Hill is preparing for an early morning sweep of Cal Anderson Park on Wednesday: This morning, Seattle Police Department officers and City of Seattle personnel posted notices around Cal Anderson announcing that the city will sweep encampments on Wednesday morning. Capitol Hill Seattle blog has great reporting on what went down this morning, and how Seattle Parks intends to begin a “multi-day intensive maintenance and cleaning project” of the park.

I had to get new glasses: I feel like Ms. Frizzle would wear these. RIP.

OH YEAH: BILL BARR. Trump says AG Barr is resigning and will be out by Christmas. This news was expected, as the two have been reportedly feuding ever since Barr told the truth for once in his goddamn life. (There was a lot of news today. Like this and this and this I couldn’t get to.)

Thats the kanji for mitsu, which means “close” or “dense.”
That’s the kanji for “mitsu,” which means “close” or “dense.” YouTube screenshot

Japan picked their kanji of the year: It’s “mitsu,” which means “close” or “dense.” The Japan Times explains the choice here: “This word has often been used as a way to raise public awareness about social distancing, with experts and government officials calling on the public to avoid the crowded settings. The phrase ‘san mitsu’ or the ‘3Cs’—confined spaces, crowds and close-contact settings—was also selected as Japan’s top buzzword for the year earlier this month.”

In Tokyo, a city with over 9 million people just in its core, social distancing became a viral game this year: Think about if America put in even a quarter of that energy in 2020. Instead, we worked to pass this milestone today: Over 300,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States.

There’s hope: UW Medicine received a very special holiday gift from FedEx at around 7:20 am this morning. UW Medicine expects to “soft launch” their vaccination clinics on Tuesday, with high-risk staffers receiving vaccinations as early as this Thursday.

The vaccines feel like a light at the end of this dark, wintery tunnel: Although, as Dr. Wenowdis said this weekend, “It’s just like the light at the end of the tunnel has shown us how stinky and bad the tunnel is.”

Chase Burns is The Stranger's former editor. He's covered everything from gay luchadores to chemical weapons to Isabella Rossellini's favorite pets.