Rudy Toot Toot: Even while President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was digging political dirt in Ukraine and urging the country to investigate Vice President Joe Biden, he was privately pursuing hundreds of thousands of dollars in business for himself from Ukrainian government officials, The NY Times reports according to documents reviewed by the paper’s reporters. 

  Giuliani has repeatedly said he has no business in Ukraine. He did sign one retainer agreement, but none of the deals he proposed were made final. He told the Times that he thought doing business with Ukraine “would be too complicated. I never received a penny.” The paper says Giuliani’s business discussions included Ukraine’s top prosecutor, who was helping him to dig dirt.

  President Trump put it at arm’s length saying, “I know he was going to go to Ukraine and I think he cancelled the trip. But, you know, Rudy has other clients other than me.”

  If Trump says he barely knows the man, it’s over for Rudy.

Anchorman: Fired Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer writes in The Washington Post that President Trump’s pardoning of three accused or convicted war criminals has damaged the standards of ethical conduct that “sets our military apart.”

  Spencer says, “We train our forces to be both disciplined and lethal. We strive to use proportional force, protect civilians and treat detainees fairly.”

  A former Marine, Spencer says that Trump interfered in what was a low level case involving Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, trying to get him removed from confinement and ordering that his rank be restored. Gallagher was acquitted of murder, but convicted of posing for a picture with the body of a dead ISIS fighter.

  Spencer writes that, “The president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.”

Breaking Bad: A group of United Parcel Service employees is accused of forming their own special delivery service. Four Big Brown employees have been arrested and charged with helping to import massive amounts of drugs and counterfeit vaping oils from Mexico during the past 10 years.

  The operation may have involved up to 11 people who moved thousands of pounds of marijuana and narcotics every week from Mexican narcos into the US and distributed the goods across the country. Authorities say the UPS employees used their cash take to buy opulent homes, vacations, and luxury vehicles.

The Obit Page: William Ruckelshaus, the deputy attorney general who resigned rather than carry out President Richard Nixon’s order to fire the independent Watergate prosecutor one evening in 1973 known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” died in Seattle at age 87.

  On the night in which Constitutional rule hung on the edge, President Nixon ordered the top three Justice Department officials to fire the Watergate special counsel. Elliot Richardson and Ruckelshaus refused and resigned. Robert Bork, the solicitor general, carried out the order firing Archibald Cox and even abolished his office.

  Ruckelshaus and Richardson came off as heroes, and Bork was the heel.

  One thing people forget about Ruckelshaus is that twice he was appointed to run the Environmental Protection Agency created under the Republican Nixon. That was in the days when conservatives conserved the environment.

The Bulletin Board: The University of North Carolina has given its “Silent Sam” statue of a Confederate soldier to a Confederate memorial group. Students who viewed the statue as a symbol of racism toppled Sam last year and it’s been stored away ever since. — Three women have accused Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland of making unwanted sexual advances. They told their stories to ProPublica and Portland Monthly. Sondland has been a critical witness in the impeachment inquiry. — Knuckling to the demands of Russia, Apple maps now includes Crimea as part of Russia. The Russians took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Happy Thanksgiving: We’re sure there’s other news about the Kardashians, Justin Bieber, and Hunter Biden, but we’re going to skip it. Watch some football. Have a nice dinner. Avoid politics.

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