Open Thread For Night Owls. Hertsgaard: Leading Proposals At Paris Could Be Disastrous

“Sen. George Helmy (D-NJ), a caretaker appointee whose days in the Senate were numbered from the moment he was sworn in, will step down on Sunday, December 8, with Senator-elect Andy Kim (D-NJ) slated to take his place the following day,” the New Jersey Globe reports.

“South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said in a televised briefing that he will lift martial law, after declaring it late Tuesday,” Bloomberg reports.

“Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that he wants to pass a reconciliation package within the first 30 days of Donald Trump taking office,” Punchbowl News reports. “Thune told GOP senators at a closed-door policy retreat that the measure, which he described as ‘highly impactful,’ would include non-tax policy items like border security, defense and energy.” “This is a highly ambitious timeline, and it will be difficult to convince the Senate parliamentarian that all of these provisions would fall under the reconciliation rules.

“President-elect Donald Trump offered billionaire investor Stephen Feinberg the job of deputy defense secretary, said people familiar with the matter, a decision that could elevate a longtime political supporter with investments in defense companies that maintain lucrative Pentagon contracts,” the Washington Post reports.

Garrett Graff: “It goes almost without saying that Kash Patel, whom Donald Trump picked over the weekend to lead the FBI, is supremely unqualified to direct the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency…” “Yet the Patel selection stands out as more concretely dangerous and worrisome than many of the other questionable Trump choices.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), who lost his reelection bid last month, is not particularly interested in addressing the latest D. C. drama surrounding President Biden’s pardon of his son, Mediaite reports. Said Tester: “I’m about to get the fuck out of here. Ask somebody else.”