Well it is Friday and the weekend is nigh!  For we retirees, every day is a weekend so I am oft reminded by my working friends.  Sometimes I am busier now than I was when I was working.  TomCat moved yesterday and is busy getting his new digs organised, and organised he’ll have to be since the new place is smaller.  He’ll likely be a few days yet before he is back online.  TGIF!!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:09 (average 5:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Yesterday’s took me 3:57 (average 4:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

AlterNet — While Fox News hosts often beat the drum for Donald Trump’s administration, during a segment on “Outnumbered” Monday, the hosts Lisa Kennedy Montgomery and Harris Faulkner (who were joined by Melissa Francis and Marie Harf) appeared to briefly acknowledge that special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation isn’t without merit.  …

“There might be something there,” Montgomery asserted. “There absolutely might be something there. We don’t know what Mueller has; he might have something. Things are starting to seem a little weird.”

Stop the presses!  Stop the presses!  A Faux Noise commentator does not want to be Trump’s carnival barker and actually thinks it is prudent to wait to see what Mueller has.  I think I’ve got the vapours . . . I’m in shock.  David Cay Johnston’s 2016 book “The Making of Don Trump” is excellent in its description of Trump’s  association with unsavoury characters throughout his career.  He recently updated the afterword to include the first year of Trump’s régime.  Below is a video of Johnston in discussion with Joy Reid talking about Trump.  Please note that this episode of AM Joy is from January 2018.

May more of the Faux Noise commentators come to their senses as Mueller’s investigation continues to unfold.

Daily Beast — Mueller? Mueller? Act 1 Full Frontal 05 December 2018

Later, she added, “One Trump associate after the other is turning out to be in deep, deep trouble. So this holiday season, as the Trumps gather around the blood tree, Trump will probably be at least a little afraid that it will be his last Christmas in the White House.”

Barf Bag Alert!!!

Don Trump Jr’s Christmas tree topper as they all sit around the blood tree.

Picture from AlterNet

I cannot bring you the rest of the show as I can’t find it on-line.  However, Sam is on the mark isn’t she!

Daily Beast — Sources close to the president say he has repeatedly shrugged it off, implying that he doesn’t have to worry about the money owed to America’s creditors—currently about $21 trillion—because he won’t be around to shoulder the blame when it becomes even more untenable.

The friction came to a head in early 2017 when senior officials offered Trump charts and graphics laying out the numbers and showing a “hockey stick” spike in the national Debt in the not-too-distant future. In response, Trump noted that the data suggested the debt would reach a critical mass only after his possible second term in office.

“Yeah, but I won’t be here,” the president bluntly said, according to a source who was in the room when Trump made this comment during discussions on the debt. …

“That was why, when he was confronted with these nightmare scenarios on the debt, I think he rejected them, because if you grow the economy… you don’t have a debt problem,” Moore continued. “I know a few times when people would bring up the enormous debt, he would say, ‘We’re gonna grow our way out of it.’”

Moore has since championed this approach to tackling the debt as a key part of “Trumponomics,” …

Trumponomics???  In Trump’s business life, he has had 6 bankruptcies as outlined in PolitiFact but while various different scenarios were at play, the one common thread was Trump.  He seems to me to have a rather cavalier attitude towards debt.  Now that attitude is showing up in his role as POTUS and his lack of concern about the national debt.  “Yeah, but I won’t be here,” being his reply.  The minority shareholders, the American people, are the ones left to shoulder the debt.  From MarketWatch:

As you can see, Americans own the majority of the debt.  This complicated topic is not easy to discuss and understand, but clearly Trump does not have a clue, and what’s worse, he appears not to care.  Republicans, who were so quick to attack Obama on the national debt levels, need to put Trump on an economic leash and walk back the corporate tax breaks which corporations are squandering rather than re-investing, just for starters.  I am sure more extreme proposals are in the offing from Republicans.  So buckle-up!!!

Cartoon — Let’s ensure this does not happen again!  Enough war!  Enough death and destruction!

My Universe  (…or is this TC’s Universe?)

TomCat moving!

Posted to Care2 HERE