Omerta: National Security aide Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testified before Congress in the impeachment inquiry that he was told not to discuss the phone call in which President Trump pressed Ukraine’s president for investigations of American citizens, The NY Times reports.

  Vindman, the top Ukraine expert at the NSC, told investigators that when he brought his concerns to an NSC lawyer, the council lawyers quickly had the transcript of the phone call moved to a secure server and ordered him not to talk about it.

  A pivotal figure appears to be the NSC lawyer, John Eisenberg, who was among the lawyers who decided to hide the record of the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Whistleblowhard: President Trump was up and tweeting this morning that, “You can’t Impeach someone who hasn’t done anything wrong!”

  Well, you can, but fortunately that’s not a problem here. The President tweeted, “The Whistleblower must come forward to explain why his account of the phone call with the Ukrainian President was so inaccurate (fraudulent?). Why did the Whistleblower deal with corrupt politician Shifty Adam Schiff and/or his committee?”

  Actually, pretty much everything the whistleblower said has been confirmed by witnesses who have testified before Congress, and by the President’s own account of his telephone conversation with the President of Ukraine. 

The Dwindling Crowd: Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke bailed out of the Democratic race for president and the word is that he’s not running for anything else, either. O’Rourke said in his announcement that he was proud of championing leading on issues like gun control and climate change but admitted his campaign lacked “the means to move forward successfully.” Not enough supporters or money.

 That leaves 17 Democrats still running for president, but California Sen. Kamala Harris is getting close to the exit. Harris closed three of her four presidential campaign offices in New Hampshire and fired all her field organizers to focus on Iowa.

Econ 101: The economy added 128,000 jobs in October, a good number, but still a sign of a slowing economy. Unemployment rose slightly to 3.6 percent, in part because the General Motors strike left 50,000 people out of work and the Census Bureau laid off 20,000 temporary workers. 

Tax Refugee: President Trump, the taxpayer in chief, explained that he moved his official residence from New York to Florida to avoid New York’s onerous taxes and what he describes as the state’s abuse of the First Real Estate Magnate.

  Trump wrote on Twitter that, “Despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year, I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state. Few have been treated worse.”

  He’s under criminal investigation. As for the amount of taxes he’s paid, the public doesn’t know. He has refused to release his tax returns.

  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, “Good riddance.”

  It’s not so easy to leave New York for tax purposes. Just being in Florida or filing a piece of paper doesn’t do it. New York counts everything from where the location of family heirlooms to where the taxpayer keeps the majority of his underwear. New York is tough. They will tax someone until they are able to prove beyond a doubt that they don’t live in the state.

The Obit Page: John Moon, who was believed to be the oldest known surviving veteran of the battle for Iwo Jima during World War II, has died at age 103. He served with the Marine Corps 5th Division and fought for 13 days before he was wounded and evacuated. After the war he opened a café in his hometown of Macomb, Illinois and later had a candy store.

Dead and Spinning: The entire writing and editing staff of the brash sports website Deadspin has after the new management issued an order for the staff to “stick to sports.”

  Deadspin writers have always had a side hustle in commentary on culture, politics, and media along with athletics. Staffers began to resign Monday when executives with G/O Media, the parent company of Deadspin and other websites including Gizmodo, The Onion and The Root, sent a directive to staffers of the sports website to write only about sports and sports-related topics.

   Former editor-in-chief Megan Greenwell tweeted, “And with that, it’s over. Deadspin no longer employs a single writer or editor. I am gutted but so very proud of this group of people. Deadspin was a good website.”

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