Coal for the Stocking: Given the go-ahead by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House might vote on whether to impeach President Trump before Christmas.

  Pelosi announced yesterday that she has asked the Judiciary Committee to draft the articles of impeachment. Speaking sternly, Pelosi said Trump has violated his oath of office by asking a foreign power for help getting him re-elected in 2020. Allowing Trump to remain in the White House, she said, would come at “the peril of our republic.”

  The Speaker said, “The actions taken to date by the President have seriously violated the Constitution, especially when the president says ‘Article Two says I can do whatever I want.’”

  President Trump has until 5 pm today to decide whether he or his lawyers will participate in proceedings. The Judiciary Committee is expected to start hearings Monday and could vote on articles by next Friday. The impeachment vote would then come as soon as December 20^th, the last day of legislative business for the year.

Where in the World is Rudy Giuliani?: President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is in Ukraine, evidently mucking around for information to help his client. He tweeted three days ago, “Working on an important project with 

@OANN, intended to bring before the American people information Schiff (recently disclosed investor in Franklin Templton) “Star chamber” proceedings have covered up. Stay tuned.”

  “OANN” is the right-wing One America News Network.

  Ukrainian conservative political operative Andrii Telizhenko offered a little more, tweeting, “With America’s Mayor @RudyGiuliani prepping for tomorrow another hard working day in meetings with Mr. Shokin and Mr. Lutcenko. To all conspiracy theorist there is no secret on what we are doing. The TRUTH will come out.” 

  Victor Shokin and Yuriy Lutsenko are both former Ukraine prosecutors believed to be deeply corrupt. Lutsenko is under criminal investigation and these are the people Trump is seeking help from through Giuliani.

No Hate: Later in the day Pelosi reacted angrily when a reporter from a conservative television network asked if she hated President Trump. Pelosi was just leaving after speaking to the press when James Rosen from the Sinclair Broadcast Group shouted out the question.

  The speaker wheeled, and, wagging her finger, said, “This is about the Constitution of the United States and the facts that lead to the president’s violation of his oath of office.” 

  Rosen asked the question because that’s what some Republican leaders say, but that’s not the way he asked the question. Pelosi said, “As a Catholic, I resent your using the word ‘hate’ in a sentence that addresses me. I don’t hate anyone.” She said, “So don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that.” 

  Trump tweeted in response, “Nancy Pelosi just had a nervous fit. She hates that we will soon have 182 great new judges and sooo much more. Stock Market and employment records. She says she ‘prays for the President.’ I don’t believe her, not even close.”

  Pelosi wasn’t the only one to snap. Yesterday Joe Biden confronted an Iowa man who said he had sent his son Hunter to work for a Ukraine energy company. Biden turned and said, “You’re a damn liar, man. That’s not true. And no one has ever said that.” 

En Grève: French workers clogged the streets yesterday in a general strike protesting their president’s plans to reform the national pension system. President Emmanuel Macron wants to combine a complex of 42 pension plans into one state system. Trains, subways, and buses were halted. Schools were closed.

  Workers confronted cities in sometimes violent clashes all around France. Macron is a former investment banker who says the maze of pension systems is hostile to business, slowing growth and job creation.

Stop Here: The Uber ride service has received nearly 6,000 complaints of sexual assault by its drivers in the last two years, the company admitted in a report. Out of 2.3 billion rides in those two years, that gives them about a 99.9 percent safety record, but it’s still not good.

 Uber’s report also says that during those two years, 107 people were killed in crashes involving Uber cars, and 19 people were killed in assaults during or soon after an Uber ride.

The Bulletin Board: President Trump, now in a second case, has asked the Supreme Court to block a subpoena for his tax and financial records. Yesterday he asked the Supremes to block the House. The other case is against the Manhattan district attorney. Trump’s lawyers argue that, “Requiring the president to disclose his personal finances as a condition of holding office is unconstitutional.”— Speaking in Aurora, Colorado, the site of a mass shooting, Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg called for sweeping new federal gun laws, including national gun licensing, stricter background checks, and passage of a federal red-flag law that would allow courts to take guns from people thought to be dangerous. Bloomberg has long been a crusader for stricter gun laws. — Four people died yesterday in a botched jewelry robbery in Coral Gables, Florida that led to the hijacking of a UPS truck and a 20-mile police chase. The UPS driver, a bystander, and two suspects were killed in a melee of gunfire on a busy highway. It hasn’t been sorted out yet who killed the driver and bystander.

Trend Watch: The latest fad among health nuts is “perineum sunning.” The sun and the moon, together again.

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