Light News

Rep. Duncan Hunter says he will plead guilty in campaign finance scandal, leave Congress | Hunter said he will accept whatever sentence the judge gives. He said he wants his seat to remain in Republican hands and he will try to ensure a smooth transition, indicating he will be leaving Congress.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-02/rep-duncan-hunter-to-abandon-not-guilty-plea-in-campaign-finance-scandal
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rep-duncan-d-hunter-says-he-will-plead-guilty-tuesday-to-misusing-campaign-funds/2019/12/02/c68609c8-1535-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html

The Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee thoroughly investigated alleged Ukraine interference in the 2016 election and found no evidence that Ukraine waged a top-down interference campaign akin to the Kremlin's efforts, Politico reports.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1201627377111117825
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/02/senate-panel-ukraine-election-interference-074796

"[A]n interview that fall with the Democratic consultant at the heart of the accusation that Kyiv meddled, Alexandra Chalupa, was fruitless, a committee source said, and Republicans didn’t follow up or request any more witnesses related to the issue."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1201627377111117825
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/02/senate-panel-ukraine-election-interference-074796

The First 2 Congressmen To Endorse Trump Have Been Indicted
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-duncan-hunter-chris-collins-indictments_n_5b7caf60e4b07295150dd6cb

New tax returns for the Donald J. Trump Foundation reveal the charitable organization raised no money and gave none away in the year leading up to President Donald Trump’s agreement to shut down the controversial charitable vehicle. | The value of the sports memorabilia and painting dropped significantly since they were procured by the Trump Foundation. The painting of Trump was purchased with foundation money for $10,000 in 2014 but the new tax return lists its worth now as just $500 while the helmet, which the foundation bought for $12,000 at an auction, is listed at $475. Notably absent from the Trump Foundation’s latest tax return is another 6-foot-tall painting of Trump the foundation paid $10,000 for after Melania Trump won it at an auction in 2012. Valued at $700 at the start of 2017, the painting’s value mysteriously dropped to zero by the end of that year without explanation and is not mentioned in the 2018 tax return at all.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/12/trump-foundation-tax-return-shows-activities-grinding-to-a-halt-before-shutdown/
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6562971-Donald-J-Trump-Foundation-2018-990.html
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/12/trump-foundation-to-dissolve-under-court-agreement/
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/11/trump-foundation-tax-return/

After Complaining About Lack of Due Process, Trump Declines Invitation to Participate in Judiciary Impeachment Hearing; "He is getting, but waiving, due process."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/02/after-complaining-about-lack-due-process-trump-declines-invitation-participate

Trump says Democrats ‘not nice!’ for holding impeachment hearings while he’s overseas — but GOP did same to Clinton
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/02/trump-criticizes-democrats-for-impeachment-timing.html

China suspends US Navy visits to Hong Kong over support for protests
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50626796

BuzzFeed News sued the US government for the right to see all the work that Mueller’s team kept secret. Today we are publishing the second installment of the FBI’s summaries of interviews with key witnesses.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/mueller-report-secret-memos-2

Judge denies Trump admin request to stay order requiring McGahn to appear for testimony. Also flays DOJ, calling its arguments 'disingenuous' & 'unacceptable mischaracterization'. Doc:
https://twitter.com/joshgerstein/status/1201627676265435136
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.210013/gov.uscourts.dcd.210013.53.0_3.pdf

The article also surfaces some of the details regarding what appears to be very serious violations of the Privacy Act by DOJ officials. Strzok is currently suing DOJ for Privacy Act violations related to the release of text messages.
https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/1201331299404992512



What Trump has actually done in his first 3 years — A big tax cut, unprecedented environmental degradation, Wall Street unleashed, and a whole lot of judges.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/2/20970521/trump-administration-achievements

Chairman Nadler Statement on White House Refusal to Participate in First Impeachment Hearing | "The American people deserve transparency. If the President thinks the call was 'perfect' and there is nothing to hide then he would turn over the thousands of pages of documents requested by Congress, allow witnesses to testify instead of blocking testimony with baseless privilege claims, and provide any exculpatory information that refutes the overwhelming evidence of his abuse of power."
https://nadler.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=394158

The Trump campaign says it will illegally refuse to credential reporters from Bloomberg News after the organization's owner jumped into the Democratic primary. In response, Bloomberg News said it wouldn't investigate any of the Democrats running.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-bloombergs-news-operation-wont-investigate-him-or-democratic-rivals-11574625757

U.S. House Speaker Pelosi says at climate summit: "We are still in" | U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi took her duel with Donald Trump to a climate summit on Monday, pledging that Congress would urgently tackle global warming despite the president’s opposition to an international pact.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-accord-pelosi/u-s-house-speaker-pelosi-says-at-climate-summit-we-are-still-in-idUSKBN1Y61SZ?il=0

The US economy is losing billions of dollars because foreign students aren't enrolling
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/19/business/international-students-decline/index.html

Steve Bullock, a successful two-term governor of a small red state with real accomplishments had no traction.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/us/politics/steve-bullock-2020-drops-out.html

Impeachment meetings tomorrow and Wednesday by House Intelligence and House Judiciary cast a transatlantic shadow over Pres Trump's attendance at the @NATO Summit. Happened before in 1998 when House Judiciary voted Articles of Impeachment when Pres Clinton was overseas.
https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/1201480119258361856

Volodymyr Zelensky questions the fairness of Trump's decision to freeze American aid: "If you're our strategic partner, then you can't go blocking anything for us," he said. "I think that's just about fairness. It's not about a quid pro quo."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1201479902651912193
https://time.com/5742108/ukraine-zelensky-interview-trump-putin-europe/

A wave of new laws in 15 states that allow people to make claims of sexual abuse going back decades could bring a deluge of lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church that could surpass anything the nation’s clergy abuse crisis has seen before.
https://apnews.com/621efb9528384f278c71a97308404531

300+ Trump ads taken down by Google, YouTube | We found that over 300 video ads were taken down by Google and YouTube, mostly over the summer, for violating company policy. But the archive doesn't detail what policy was violated. Was it copyright violation? A lie or extreme inaccuracy? Faulty grammar? Bad punctuation? It's unclear. The ads determined to be offending are not available to be screened. We found very little transparency in the transparency report.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/300-trump-ads-taken-down-by-google-youtube-60-minutes-2019-12-01/

U.S. Drone Killed Afghan Civilians
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/01/world/asia/drone-civilians-afghanistan.html

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has begun informing Republican officials he plans to appoint financial services executive Kelly Loeffler to the state’s soon-to-be vacant Senate seat, according to three people familiar with the conversations. Members of the state’s Republican congressional delegation were among those to receive a heads-up from Kemp on his decision, according to an aide to a House Republican from Georgia who received a call from the governor over the weekend. A spokesperson for Kemp declined to comment. Loeffler’s expected selection was first reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The choice could face serious backlash from conservatives. Donald Trump has told Kemp he favors GOP Rep. Doug Collins, a staunch ally and the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, for the appointment. Kemp took Loeffler to the White House late last month to meet with the president. But the meeting did not go as planned: Trump raised pointed concerns about whether Loeffler — who has never run for elected office before — is seasoned enough in politics to receive the nod.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/01/georgia-governor-set-to-buck-trump-on-senate-appointment-074730

This Is the Single Best Argument For Why Trump Should Be Impeached and Removed: He tried to meddle in the 2020 election. It's crazy to say that you have to let him participate in the 2020 election in order to render a verdict on his attempt to cheat in it.
https://thebulwark.com/this-is-the-single-best-argument-for-why-trump-should-be-impeached-and-removed/

Trump Tweets Support For World AIDS Day. His Budget Would Slash Critical Funding.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-world-aids-day-budget_n_5de42205e4b0d50f32a42bc4

As U.S. corporate jet use approaches pre-financial crisis levels and chief executives take an increasing number of personal trips on the company tab, many investors are being kept in the dark about the true cost of the perk
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-taxes-jets-insight/off-the-radar-u-s-ceos-jet-perks-add-millions-to-corporate-tax-bills-idUSKBN1Y6131

Denmark has for the 1st time put Greenland top of its national security agenda, ahead of terrorism & cybercrime. The Defence Intelligence Service linked its change in priorities to US interest in Greenland, expressed in Trump's desire to buy the territory.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50598898

YEP: I don’t think OK BOOMER is any less ageist than mocking millennials. Many Boomer women had to fight for decades to get into positions of power (Kamala Harris, Mazie Hirono, Marcia Fudge, to name a few). I don’t give a shit if they can’t turn their iPhone flashlight off.
https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1201282556089397248

Zelensky Tells Trump: Please Stop Saying Ukraine Is Corrupt. He'll stop, but he'd like you to do him a favor, though...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/zelensky-tells-trump-please-stop-saying-ukraine-is-corrupt

John Kerry: We’ve Got To Treat Action On Climate Change Like A War
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/john-kerry-climate-change-war_n_5de48766e4b0d50f32a47891

Jordan Sekulow says Trump personal legal team plans to dig into the background of the law professors who HJC Democrats call as witnesses. "I can't wait to find out what crazy stuff the law professors have written. I bet anti-Israel, borderline antisemitic. Maybe anti-American?"
https://twitter.com/dsamuelsohn/status/1201560836944388096

Giuliani Threatens to Sue Fox News Host for Calling Him Part of the ‘Swamp’
https://www.thedailybeast.com/rudy-giuliani-threatens-to-sue-fox-news-host-steve-hilton-for-calling-him-part-of-the-swamp

Sir David Attenborough says it’s ‘too late’ to reverse climate change | 11-year-old had written in to ask what the worst thing to happen in his life would be ‘if we don’t tackle climate change’. Sir David replied: ‘I think civil unrest on a great scale, and mass migration on a great scale."
https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/30/sir-david-attenborough-says-late-reverse-climate-change-11244918/

London Bridge victim's father condemns 'beyond disgusting' Boris Johnson for using son's death for political gain - 'Don’t use my son’s death to promote your vile propaganda. Jack stood against everything you stand for'
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-london-bridge-terror-attack-jack-merritt-father-daily-mail-a9228886.html

Grandmother dumps burnt remains of home at Australian Parliament House in climate change protest
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-02/bushfire-victim-nsw-nymboida-climate-change-protest/11757082

2020 Voting machine status of the Moscow 8:

Shelby (R-AL) Decade old insecure unsupported voting machines
https://www.al.com/news/2019/07/report-says-aging-voting-machines-a-concern-in-alabama.html

Daines (R-MT) Brand new printing electronic machines. Nice.
https://www.mtpr.org/post/touchscreen-voting-machines-could-debut-montana-november

Hoeven (R-ND) New machines. Electronic scan of paper ballots
https://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/new-north-dakota-election-equipment-going-out-to-counties/article_2cab579d-8b4c-5190-9156-ebf55d4a6846.html

Johnson (R-WI)Infamously hackable, no effort to fix
https://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2018/07/voting-systems-in-wisconsin-a-key-swing-state-can-be-hacked-security-experts-warn/

Kennedy (R-LA)Paperless, notorious
https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/louisiana/2019/09/15/analysis-new-louisiana-election-same-old-voting-machines/2336495001/

Moran (R-KS)You gotta be kidding me. Nobody knows.
https://www.govtech.com/policy/Kansas-Voting-Machine-Records-Raise-Questions.html

Thune (R-SD)Paper ballots, punch or optical scan
https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/Codified_Laws/DisplayStatute.aspx?Type=Statute&Statute=12-17B-2

Granger (R-TX)Deliberately replacing 20 year old machines with hackable paperless machines
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/05/election-security-texas-1445537

Kennedy needs hacker support. That's why he was there.