Foreign Policy (March 18)
“Sorry, America, the full lockdown is coming. Politicians won’t admit it yet, but it’s time to prepare—physically and psychologically—for a sudden stop to all life outside your home.” As borders shut, it’s time to ask, “Where, and with whom, do you want to spend the next six to 12 weeks of your life, hunkered down for the epidemic duration?”
Tags: Borders, Life, Lockdown, Physically, Politicians, Psychologically, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (November 28)
“American voters, beware. Politicians promising that Medicare for All and a Green New Deal can be financed by the rich are lying to you. The middle class will pay because that’s where the real money is.”
Tags: Beware, Green New Deal, Lying, Medicare, Middle class, Money, Politicians, Rich, U.S., Voters
Wall Street Journal (July 11)
“The bitterness of Brexit pervades all aspects of British life and politics. It has divided friends and families, produced a Conservative cabinet with more leaks than an old sieve, split the diplomats of the U.S. and the U.K., and exposed a rift between Britain’s elected politicians and its unelected civil servants.”
Tags: Bitterness, Brexit, Cabinet, Conservative, Diplomats, Divides, Elected, Families, Friends, Life, Politicians, Politics, Rift, Split, U.S., UK, Unelected
Financial Times (June 20)
“Which tribe of politicians can claim to be the party of business? Back in the tax-cutting, deregulating, privatizing days of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, the question was simple to answer on each side of the Atlantic. But Donald Trump and Brexit have a way of scrambling well-worn assumptions.” Neither the Republican Party or, across the pond, the Conservative Party remain the clear home of business.
Tags: Assumptions, Atlantic, Brexit, Business, Conservative, Deregulating, Politicians, Privatizing, Reagan, Republicans, Tax-cutting, Thatcher, Trump
The Guardian (February 6)
“Donald Tusk should be criticised not for his malice, but his moderation. The European council president triggered a tsunami of confected outrage from leavers today when he observed, with some justice, that there should be a special place in hell for those who promoted Brexit without a plan. But he should have said far more. He should have added that, within that special place, there should be an executive suite of sleepless torment for those politicians who promoted Brexit without ever giving a stuff about Ireland.”
Tags: Brexit, Ireland, Leavers, Malice, Moderation, Outrage, Politicians, Torment, Tusk
Chicago Tribune (December 23)
“Japanese leaders are now under international pressure to pass a sweeping smoking ban in restaurants and many other public places before Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympics.” While many politicians are reluctant, “Japanese restaurateurs and entrepreneurs who seek to attract the widest possible international clientele during the Olympics—and after—will ban smoking. Wouldn’t it be terrific if the Tokyo Olympics sparked a Great Japanese Smokeout?”
Tags: 2020 Olympics, Clientele, International pressure, Japan, Politicians, Reluctant, Restaurants, Smoking ban, Tokyo
Houston Chronicle (November 7)
“With due respect to the faith and beliefs of every person, especially the grieving residents of Sutherland Springs, the rote statements of politicians were almost blasphemous in their repetition and meaninglessness. From Japan, President Trump’s ‘thoughts and prayers’ riff was so stale and scripted that it conveyed all the sincerity of a robocall offering an extended warranty on a kitchen appliance. The irony no doubt escaped the president that he was speaking to tortured souls in small-town Texas from a nation with strict and sensible gun laws. A nation where gun violence is almost unheard of.”
Tags: Blasphemous, Faith, Grieving, Gun laws, Japan, Politicians, Sensible, Strict, Sutherland Springs, Thoughts and prayers, Trump, U.S., Violence
Reuters (October 27)
AT&T’s $85 billion “offer for Time Warner lacks strategic rationale, has politicians of all stripes criticizing it and has destroyed shareholder value while denying owners a vote. All it lacks–so far–is an activist shareholder demanding it be scrapped.”
Wall Street Journal (July 19)
“What did Winston Churchill say about how politicians should behave—be defiant in defeat but magnanimous in victory? The Donald Trump campaign must have missed that lesson in political manners because it started off the Cleveland convention on Monday by picking unnecessary fights with vanquished foes.”
Tags: Campaign, Cleveland, Convention Fights, Defeat, Defiant, Donald Trump, Magnanimous, Politicians, Victory, Winston Churchill
Wall Street Journal (April 21)
“For Europe to grow faster, the political class will eventually have to stop looking to the ECB as the growth engine of first and last resort.” On Thursday, Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, was unusually blunt in his criticism of other European politicians because they “have used the relief of low interest rates as an excuse not to do reforms.”
Tags: Blunt, Criticism, Draghi, ECB, Europe, Excuse, Growth engine, Interest rates, Politicians, Reforms
