Washington Post (September 8)
“Washington feels like the capital of an occupied country,” filled with “institutional and administrative chaos; our military chain of command is compromised; people around the elected president feel impelled to act above the law and remove papers from his desk. The mechanisms meant to protect the state from an incompetent or dictatorial president are not being used because people in power no longer believe in them, or are afraid to use them. Washington feels like the capital of a state where the legal order has collapsed.”
Tags: Administrative, Chain of command, Chaos, Collapsed, Dictatorial, Elected, Incompetent, Institutional, Law, Legal order, Military, Occupied, Power, President, Protect, Washington
Caribbean Business (October 1)
Although he “spent years hammering his predecessor, Barack Obama, both for playing golf and leaving Washington too often,” President Trump “appeared unconcerned with the optics of spending his Sunday afternoon watching The Presidents Cup at the Liberty National Golf Club as the crisis continued” in Puerto Rico. As victims of the hurricane clamor for help, President Trump is also expected to “present a trophy to the tournament’s winning team.”
Tags: Crisis, Golf, Golf Club, Hurricane, Obama, Optics, Predecessor, Puerto Rico, Trump, Unconcerned, Victims, Washington
LA Times (July 26)
“Washington’s biggest problem isn’t gridlock or wasted dollars—it’s men…. Men tried to pass a bill that only 13% of Americans supported, contributing to the (true) perception that the majority of Congress does not give a damn about what ordinary citizens think.” Their errant attempts were initially thwarted women who stood up for their beliefs, something they continue to do “even in the face of massive dissent” and political strong-arming.
Tags: Beliefs, Citizens, Congress, Dissent, Gridlock, Men, Strong-arming, Support, Washington, Waste
CNN (November 10)
“Donald Trump’s populist campaign didn’t always square with his past statements. And that makes his agenda as president anybody’s guess.” His fluid positions “could give the businessman an edge in making legislative deals…. Or it could halt action in Washington completely if he finds himself at odds with both Republicans and Democrats.”
Tags: Agenda, Deals, Democrats, Guess, Past, Populist, Positions, Republicans, Trump, U.S., Washington
USA Today (June 21)
“You’d think that if there was one step both parties in Washington could support in the wake of the nation’s worst mass shooting, it would be to close a yawning gap in federal gun background checks…. Yet in an extraordinary act of cowardice,” over 50 “spineless lawmakers voted against advancing a commonsense measure to expand background checks to virtually all sales of guns, not just those sold by federally licensed dealers.”
Tags: Background checks, Commonsense, Cowardice, Dealers, Guns, Lawmakers, Mass shooting, Spineless, Washington
Washington Post (January 24)
“The Washington region on Sunday lurched fitfully from under one of the heaviest snowfalls in memory, with federal and local governments set to be closed on Monday, the Metro system prepared to offer severely limited service Monday, and authorities warning that it could take days for the plows to reach some residential streets.”
Tags: Authorities, Closed, Government, Metro, Snowfall, Warnings, Washington
Wall Street Journal (November 5)
“The drumming you hear in Washington, Frankfurt and Tokyo is the accompaniment to the Central Bank Limbo, as the world’s monetary maestros line up to see how low they can go. The Bank of England (BOE) joined the queue Thursday with its announcement that a rate increase will again be delayed.” BOE Governor Mark Carney warned a year and a half earlier “that a rate rise could come ‘sooner than markets currently expect.’” Nevertheless, “Britain’s monetary-policy committee reverted to dovishness at its meeting this week.”
Tags: BOE, Carney, Central bank, Dovish, Frankfurt, Limbo, Markets, MPC, Rate increase, Tokyo, Washington
LA Times (September 22)
Chinese President Xi Jinping is stopping on the West Coast to meet with business leaders before meeting with President Obama in Washington. Many expect Xi to enlist the support of the business leaders he meets in derailing the likely imposition of “economic sanctions on China as punishment for cyber attacks, including the theft of millions of sensitive personnel records from U.S. government computers.” The 30 U.S. business leaders meeting with Xi in Seattle should be careful not to “undermine their long-term interests by giving Xi the wrong message on cybersecurity…. It would be shortsighted and foolish to try to dampen the federal government’s response to the relentless cyber attacks.”
Tags: Business leaders, China, Cyber attacks, Cybersecurity, Economic sanctions, Obama, Personnel records, Shortsighted, Washington, Xi
Institutional Investor (April 27)
“For decades Washington politicians have evoked the dream of a North American energy alliance that would deliver Mexico’s abundant hydrocarbons to factories and motor vehicles in the U.S.” Today’s reality “is confounding expectations. It’s the booming U.S. energy sector that is powering Mexican factories and cars.”
Tags: Cars, Energy alliance, Factories, Hydrocarbons, Mexico, North America, Politicians, U.S., Washington
The Economist (January 10)
“North Korea’s strange juggling act is becoming ever more precarious. The hubbub over The Interview has attracted unwanted attention. “Just because Mr Kim runs a paranoid, delusional despotism, does not mean that the outside world is not out to get him.” In fact, it increasingly seems “the comforting calculation for North Korea’s regime—that, painful though its existence is to its people and the outside world, its collapse would be worse—may not hold for ever in Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington.”
Tags: Beijing, Collapse, Delusional, Despotism, Kim, North Korea, Paranoid, Regime, Seoul, The Interview, Tokyo, Washington
