Climate Change

In other news, job creation fell short (155,000) of expectations (198,000) in November and wages also grew slightly less (0.2) than expected (0.3)

Meanwhile, CNN reports that special prosecutor Robert Mueller's team has interviewed White House Chief of Staff John Kelly about possible obstruction of justice committed by Trump.

And in related news, John Kelly is expected to resign any day now. We've heard that before, but sources say Trump and Kelly are no longer speaking to each other.

Here are some other stories I didn't get to this week:

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie is apparently a neo-confederate Lost Causer, at least he was in the 1990s.

Buzzfeed News has a concerning report on how Facebook's new algorithms triggered the riots in France.

JP Morgan estimates that Trump's trade war has shaved off about 10 percent of the S&P 500's value this year.

The Louisville-based Courier Journal reports that Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin's changes to Medicaid are just as much of a cruel clusterfuck as you would imagine, or worse.

In a sign of the times, the nearly century old Marlboro tobacco company is investing $2.4 billion in marijuana.

OPEC and their industry partners have agreed to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day in an effort to raise prices. What was that Trump said about the Saudis lowering prices for us?

Robots are coming to a Wal-Mart near you. They'll be tasked with cleaning the floors.

The Puerto Rican government now estimates that Hurricane Maria cost the island's economy at least $43 billion.

An evangelical pastor who spoke at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser that cost $100,000 to attend tells us Free Market Jesus has drained the swamp.

God told attendees of a political fundraising event at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last month that the president is, indeed, draining the swamp. [...]

“The first thing He had me say is ‘Moses is dead,’” Pastor Curt Landry recalled telling attendees in a YouTube video posted last week. “What that means to us is that the swamp is dead. The way of doing things in the old way, in the swamp, the swamp is dead.”

But if the swamp was dead, those at the event, who paid as much as $100,000 to attend, seemed to be pouring a new one.

A study commissioned by Congress concluded that we need to raise the gas tax by at least 30 cents over 10 years to maintain the federal highway system.

Some analysts now say they expect we'll see a recession in the first half of 2020 rather than the second half.

Canadian authorities say Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is being charged with fraud for tricking banks into violating Iran sanctions by using a shell company to hide the nature of the business.

Infamous militiaman Ammon Bundy says he's quitting the militia movement which he compared to "Germany in the 1930s." So there's that.

American consumer debt increased by $25.4 billion in October, the biggest increase in 11 months.

Finally, CNBC reports that Trump is "glued" to watching the stock market on TV.

The president still sees the Dow Jones Industrial Average as a significant benchmark for his performance, the report said, citing sources close to Trump. The blue chip index is up about 23 percent since Trump's inauguration but turned negative for the year during another rough market session Friday.

One person close to the White House told the WSJ that the president is "glued" to the stock market.

The market closed down 559 points today.

Have a good weekend.