Do the right thing...it's less polarizing

"I think first you do the right thing for the country, and then you think about the political ramifications, and in this case, doing the right thing would be less polarizing."

Tom McCarthy, Republican congressman, New Jersey, speaking about changes to the ACA, quoted in the NYTimes, February 24, 2017, "Health Law Repeal Faces Hurdles Even in House.

Averaging a triple-double

Averaging a triple-double is like having a helicopter that is also a boat that can also write the Great American Novel.
--"The Mysteries of an Everything Man" by Sam Anderson
feature on Russell Westbrook, NYTMagazine, 2/5/2017

President Trump wants more thorough briefing on his executive orders

"For the moment, Mr. Bannon remains the president's dominant adviser, despite Mr. Trump's anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council, a greater source of frustration to the president than the fallout from the travel ban."

--Trump and staff rethink tactics after stumbles, Glenn Thrush, NYT, 2/6/2017

Fitting in

"They wanted to live in a place 'where you could walk down the street with tattoos and your guitar and fit in.'
That place was New York."

--New York Times, in a story about two young people who left far northern Maine for a new start, 12/21/2016

Response to Berlin Christmas market attack has echo in 1928

"Berlin is a place that has dealt well with so many of the problems we face across Western Europe, with immigration, with regards to Russia, in rebuilding ourselves after the collapse of the totalitarian state as a tolerant and open city.

"That's what the crash at the Christmas market targeted."

"Right-wing German populists from the surging Alternative for Germany party took to social media on Monday to blame the country's chancellor, Angela Merkel, for welcoming migrants, calling the victims 'Angela's dead.'

"It was a response that brought to mind as essay written years ago, criticizing the area around the Gedachtniskirche for being too cosmopolitan--a meeting place for 'harlots' and 'so-called men' and for people speaking all the languages of the world.'

"The essayist expressed contempt for what he called 'the spirit of the asphalt democracy' and predicted a 'day of judgment.'

That was 1928. The writer was Joseph Goebbels.

--New York Times, 12/21/2016, quoting long-time Berlin resident Elisabeth Ruge

Of, by, and for television

"About a week ago, I was watching the nightly news," Trump said. "I won'r say which one because I don't want to give them credit." A Carrier worker had challenged Mr. Trump to keep his promise to stop the manufacturer from leaving the state.

"This was news to Mr. Trump, who didn't believe he had made the promise until the newscast showed video of him doing it. There it was, on TV.

"It was a striking admission. And it captured, in miniature, what it means to have a president-elect who is so thoroughly of, by and for television."

NY Times 12/12/2016

Jobs in Google's view

"Eventually every job is going to be a tech job."--Brenda Standridge, manager, Google's facility in Pryor, OK.

Pryor's industrial tax base increased to $430 million when Google came to town. The state of OK actually paid 23.9 million of Google's local property tax for 2016, and Google paid just $1.2 million, due to a business-friendly 1985 law. At the same time, state spending for education fell, and another city, Wagoner, had its education funding reduced from $18 million to $14 million, due in part to dropping oil prices/revenue. Google continues to get this kind of deal from the state for 5 years, then will pay its share of taxes reduced by depreciation on its equipment. Employment at Google in Pryor? 115 Google employees, 230 contractors for things like security and groundskeeping, and 150 part-time workers.

NYTimes, 12/12/2016