Feeling Cynical This Morning, Are We? -- December 19, 2018 -- The Market, Energy, And Political Page -- T+44

Call for the wall: like global warming, "the call for a wall" appears to be simply playing to the "base" and a "fund-raising" issue. Apparently it wasn't all that important. The delta between $5 billion (Trump) and $2 billion (Congress) is $3 billion. The cost of a B-2 bomber, according to a wiki source, $2.1 billion. Actually, there's a bit of irony here: according to news reports yesterday, Trump will get "his wall." But it will be farther south than he implied. It will be a wall along the southern border of Mexico, and it will be paid for with US money.

Antarctic: so, tell me, again. When does it ever get warm enough in the Antarctic for any melting? See this link.

Fool me once: yesterday morning, I was unable to get to a headline story that said the Salvation Army put out an "urgent plea" with regard to its "red bucket" campaign.  I was curious what the "urgent plea" was all about. I was worried that elves might be stealing the buckets or playing pranks on the bell ringers. So I googled salvation army red bucket urgent plea. It turns out that the Salvation Army apparently puts out an "urgent plea" several days about this time every year. This was just the first page of "hits":