LIFERS: California’s outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is expected to run for president,  commuted the death sentences of the state’s 548 condemned prisoners, about a quarter of all death row inmates in the country in the largest mass commutation in history.

  Saying he finds the death penalty morally objectionable, Newsom reduced every death sentence to life without parole. “State-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system and diminishes each of us,” Newsom wrote in an open letter to California residents. “I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency.”

  The death penalty usually takes decades to apply. The last prisoner executed in California committed murder in 1980 and was not executed until 2006 at age 76.

  California’s death row is populated with some notorious killers and some of the victim families are in an uproar over Newsom’s commutation. Among the condemned is Richard Allen Davis, the kidnap killer of 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993.

  Marc Klaas, Polly’s father, said; “We’re talking about serial killers, spree killers, cop killers, baby killers. We’re talking about absolutely the worst people in our society, without a doubt. And he’s putting his energy into commuting these characters?”

ON THE ROPES: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces an impeachment vote as soon as next week, pushed by outgoing Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie.

  Hegseth in response issued an overtly political and defiant six minute video in which he cast himself as a victim under the Trump umbrella. “A disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump twice,” Hegseth said.

  Massie’s original articles of impeachment introduced earlier this year referenced the unauthorized war in Iran, Caribbean and Pacific drug boat strikes, and actions in Yemen. 

  “It’s all about the politics of personal destruction,” Hegseth said in his video. “Didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me. You can rest assured of that.”

  Massie said he would not introduce the articles if Hegseth resigns.

NOSE DIVE: Stocks took a dive yesterday on fears of an artificial intelligence bubble only a day after a spike on the news of a Democratic sweep in the midterm elections. Go figure.

  The president of the United States posted, “The Stock Market suffered one of the Worst Days in History based on the results of the Election. Such a sad thing to watch! It took so much work to get us to a level that no one has ever seen before, and then this.”

THE LATE COUNT: Democrats have reached a majority of 253 seats in the House of representatives leaving Republicans for the moment with 157. Twenty-five races are undecided.

  Democrats also hold narrow leads in the uncalled Senate races in Mississippi and Alaska.

  President Trump posted a rant about the Alaska situation in which there are two Dan Sullivans on the ballot, potentially confusing the vote for the incumbent Dan S. Sullivan. Trump wrote; “The vote totals for the Fake Dan Sullivan, plus the other ‘slug’ that the Dems put on the Ballot, should be immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan, and the Election is over – He easily wins. There is no other fair solution!”

  That’s not how it works in the ranked choice system. The candidate with the fewest votes gets eliminated. If you voted for that candidate, your vote goes to your next choice. 

INFINITE SCROLL:

— Harmeet Dhillon, the chief of the Justice Department’s civil rights division who had concentrated on pressuring universities and obtaining voting data from states, resigned yesterday amidst internal conflict with the DOJ.

  Dillon had flipped the mission of the Civil Rights Division, turning it from protecting such things as voting rights to eliminating diversity, equity initiatives at universities and pursuing the phantoms of vote fraud. 

— A federal judge just before midnight blocked the beginning of construction for President Trump’s triumphal arch only hours after it had been approved by a federal planning commission. Trump had hoped to start work immediately. 

  District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a 14-day delay, citing the administration’s shifting reasons for building the arch, including that it is a matter of national security. 

  Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian sued the government earlier this year, arguing that the arch does not have required  Congressional approval. The Democratic governments of D.C. and Virginia jointly filed a similar lawsuit last weekend.

THE OBIT PAGE: Harold Greene, a Los Angeles news anchor for decades and a fixture in the local news industry, has died at age 82. No cause was given.

  While Greene was a serious news man, he was also taken as the model for Will Ferrell’s sendup in the 2004 comedy “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”

THE SPIN RACK: A British court yesterday found actor and comedian Russell Brand guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault. The 51-year-old was found not guilty of three other charges. The incidents occurred between 1999 and 2006. The judge said Brand would be sentenced to a “significant” prison term on Monday.  — Nithya Raman, a 45-year-old democratic socialist who tapped into widespread dissatisfaction with the quality of life in the country’s second-largest city, has been declared the winner of the race for mayor of Los Angeles, unseating 73-year-old incumbent Karen Bass. Raman has served six years in the city council. — Kenyan cult leader, Paul Mackenzie,founder of the Good News International Church, was sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murder of 191 people, all but one of them children, in a campaign of abuse and forced fasting.

BELOW THE FOLD: President Trump yesterday signed a proclamation making the Oval Office a national monument, in effect attempting to preserve his gaudy gold decorations. He’d be OK if the next president works with a constant headache.