Welcome to Tuesday, November 26th, new and old money...

The secretary of the Navy was fired for proposing a "secret agreement" with the White House.

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer released a scathing parting letter after being forced to resign by Defense Secretary Mark Esper over a private proposal Spencer made to the White House involving disgraced Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.

Gallagher, the Navy SEAL, had been demoted after posing with the corpse of a dead Islamic State militant in 2017.

Last week, President Donald Trump reversed Gallagher’s demotion via a pardon. A few days later, the president tweeted that Gallagher should not be removed from the SEALs (the Navy had planned a review of Gallagher that could have resulted in his expulsion). 

Reportedly, Spencer began working privately with the White House to resolve its standoff with the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Esper said he asked for Spencer’s resignation because he had lost "trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candor," according to a Pentagon spokesman. Meaning: Esper accused Spencer of circumventing chain-of-command by going behind his back to talk with the White House.

The former Navy secretary placed the blame on Trump, accusing the president of undermining the "key principle of good order and discipline" of the military by intervening in Gallagher's case.

"I no longer share the same understanding with the Commander in Chief who appointed me, in regards to the key principle of good order and discipline," Spencer wrote in his letter. 

Do you support the Navy secretary's firing?

On the Radar

Great Boy

The White House on Monday welcomed Conan, the Delta Force dog injured during last month's raid that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The Belgian Malinois was hurt in an explosion after al-Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest, but has since made a full recovery and returned to active duty. He was in attendance with Special Forces personnel from the raid, which involved no other U.S. casualties.

After awarding the dog a medal and plaque, Trump praised Conan as “the ultimate fighter, ultimate everything.” 

Conan’s visit wasn’t the only animal-related news coming out of the White House on Monday: Trump signed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, which makes it a federal crime punishable by fines and up to 7 year in prison to engage in animal crushing or otherwise torture animals. It passed both chambers of Congress on voice votes.

How do you feel about Conan's award & PACT's enactment?

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Under the Radar

Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Parties Celebrate Election Victory

Hong Kong voters went to the polls in record numbers over the weekend to vote in the normally low-profile local council elections, with pro-democracy candidates securing control in 17 of the city’s 18 districts in a sweeping rejection of pro-Beijing establishment candidates. 

Pro-democracy candidates won 76.8% of council seats (347 seats), compared to 13.3% (60 seats) for pro-Beijing candidates, and 10% (45 seats) for independent candidates. Overall turnout was unprecedented for a Hong Kong election, totaling 2.94 million voters ― 71.2% of the city’s eligible voters and more than double the 2015 turnout of 1.4 million. 

How do you feel about the landslide victory for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong?

What You're Saying

Here's how you're answering Should the Federal Minimum Wage Exceed $13 an Hour?