Category: Media Watch

* “We are committed to the security of Japan and all areas under its administrative control and to further strengthening our very crucial alliance.”– President Donald Trump’s pledge during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

* “We stand with Japan and we stand with our allies in the region to address the North Korean menace.”–Stephen Miller, Trump’s chief policy adviser.

* “Trumpism is a posture that leads to the now familiar cycle of threat perception, insult, enemy-making, aggrievement, self-pity, assault and counterassault.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “The news media’s spectacular failure to get the election right has made it only easier for many conservatives to ignore anything that happens outside the right’s bubble and for the Trump White House to fabricate facts with little fear of alienating its base.”–Charles J. Sykes, author of “How the Right Lost Its Mind.”

* “In Trump we trust.”–Ann Coulter.

* “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate the truth.”–Garry Kasparov, Russian dissident and chess grandmaster.

* “I would like to say by the end of the year, at least the rudiments, but we should have something within the year and the following year.”–Donald Trump, on plans to enact a replacement for the Affordable Care Act.

* “(MacDill AFB) is quite a place. We will be loading it up with beautiful new planes and new equipment. You’ve been lacking equipment, and we will load it up.”–Donald Trump during his recent visit to MacDill to meet with CentCom and SOCom.

* “Trump’s analysis of people and situations hinges on whether they exalt him. A news organization that challenges him is inevitably “failing.” A politician who pushes back at him is invariably a loser. Middle school cliques have more moral discernment.”–Frank Bruni, New York Times.

* “Given the foreign policy damage and widespread protest Trump’s travel ban is creating and the negligible impact of walls on stopping migration, why is he so fixated on walls and bans? U.S. immigration history suggests one answer. Walls and anti-immigrant decrees succeed as symbolic acts, as forms of theater.”–Gunther Peck, associate professor of American history at Duke University.

* “America has learned difficult lessons in the past that fear and emotion alone should not drive policy. … Instead, facts and evidence should drive decision-making, consistent with the U.S. Constitution. America’s national security deserves no less.”–U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.

* “These raids have struck fear in the hearts of the immigrant community as many fear that President Trump’s promised ‘deportation force’ is now in full-swing.”–Excerpt from statement by members of the Congressional Hispanic Congress after a series of actions by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

* “ICE does not use checkpoints, nor do we use sweeping raids. We use target enforcement actions against specific individuals to make these arrests.”–ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez.

* “If you’re a really smart person and you want to immigrate to a great country that will welcome you, come to Canada! And if you’re Muslim, you’re very, very welcome here, as are people of every faith–and atheists too.”–Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.

* “A carbon tax is the most cost-effective way to reduce emissions. … A sensibly priced, gradually rising tax would send a powerful market signal to businesses that want certainty when planning for the future.”–Former Secretary of State and Treasury Secretary George Shultz and former Secretary of State and Treasury Secretary James Baker.

* “It feels like what investors had signed up to was fiscal stimulus and downplaying of protectionism, and what we’ve got is a playing up of protectionism.”–Paul Ashworth, chief United States economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.

* “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff.”–Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

* “There’s a lot of interest regarding airport infrastructure and generating funding to modernize U.S. airports. Our president is very supportive of this.”–TIA CEO Joe Lopano.

* “The reality is, that this is not corporate welfare. It is corporate competition.”–Craig Richard, CEO of the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp., on the use of state incentives to recruit corporations and jobs.

* “Parental leave, child care and the like are not women’s issues–they are economic issues. The progress we make on this front will directly impact our competitiveness on the global stage.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn.

* “The West Shore area has become much more than a business district over the last few years and is now a vibrant, live-work-play community.”–Jay Curran, senior vice president of Nashville-based developer Crescent Communities.

* “This is what success looks like. Today, Hillsborough is safer.”–State Attorney Andrew Warren, on a recent undercover operation by the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office that netted 51 arrests, 66 seized guns and nearly four pounds of drugs.

* “Tech is alive and well in the Tampa Bay area, and we’re doing what we can to help jump-start the tech ecosystem here. It’s companies like ReliaQuest that are bringing high-paying jobs to Tampa.”–Jeff Vinik, reacting to the announcement that Tampa data security company ReliaQuest will create at least 150 jobs at its new headquarters on Harbour Island this year.

* “We used to be a donor city where young people would leave to find jobs in Austin or Raleigh or Boston. But now we’re a city that’s growing every day and becoming that place in America that we always thought we could be.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn.

* “Byrne loved Tampa, and he left it better than he found it.”–Former Mayor Dick Greco, reflecting on the life of the late Byrne Litschgi.

* “Europe has never needed a strong (Angela) Merkel more. In 2017, she’ll be unavailable for the role.”–Ian Bremmer, founder and president of the Eurasia Group, a political-risk consultant firm.

* “It isn’t the clash of civilizations so much as the clash of artificially reconstructed civilizations that is taking place.”–Robert D. Kaplan, author of “Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America’s Role in the World.”

* “Iran is playing with fire. They don’t appreciate how ‘kind’ President Obama was to them. Not me.”–President Donald Trump.

* “The world’s on fire. We have more challenges than any time in the last 70 years. Whatever influence I have, I need to exercise it.”–Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

* “If there is to be any kind of loyal Republican opposition on Capitol Hill, (McCain’s) already its de facto leader.”–Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times.

* “The real benefit of TPP went beyond trade. It was about leadership in Asia.”–Rice University economist Russell Green.

* “Two words: Vladimir Putin.”–Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, explaining why he opposed the nomination of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

* “We expect to be cutting a lot out of Dodd-Frank because, frankly, I have so many people, friends of mine that had nice businesses, they can’t borrow money. They just can’t get any money because the banks just won’t let them borrow it because of the rules and regulations in Dodd-Frank.”–President Donald Trump.

* “There is unprecedented citizen engagement right now. Phone calls to the office are in the thousands. Social media is on fire. People are protesting. They’re in a way leading the charge. These engaged citizens understand what’s at stake.”–U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.

* “The bedrock of this country are immigration and really a great separation between church and state.”–Shahid Khan, the Muslim, immigrant owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

* “The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!”–President Donald Trump, in criticizing federal Judge James Robart, who imposed a temporary nationwide halt to the president’s order barring refugees and those from seven majority-Muslim nations from entering this country.

* “The president’s hostility toward the rule of law is not just embarrassing, it is dangerous.”–Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

* “If the last president was too above the fray, this one is the fray.”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

* “This is not business as usual. At the risk of being melodramatic, I feel like we are at a pivotal moment in the history of the country.”–Tallahassee-based Republican strategist–and Trump critic–J.M. “Mac” Stipanovich.

* “For the last several years, whenever Congress would concoct some way to roll back a rule protecting clean air or clean water or undermine the fight against climate change, we always felt confident as we had an adult in charge at the White House. Now, what used to be a wish list of the oil and coal and gas industry has become the to-do list for Congress and the White House.”–Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club.

* “Most candidates want to win the election so that they can become president, but it seems like Donald Trump wanted to become president so that he could win the election. It’s all about winning.”–Dan P. McAdams, the Atlantic.

* “Something changed after Nov. 8. I don’t think people saw how fragile our democracy is.”–Juan Cuba, chairman of the Miami-Dade Democrats.

* “It is the rule of judges to apply, not alter, the work of the people’s representatives. A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge.”–Judge Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.

* “I don’t think government should spend money on tourism and marketing at all.”–Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran.

* “A medical tourist is like a regular tourist on steroids. They spend more, they stay longer, and it’s a much more solid economic boost to our state.”–State Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach.

* “I remain confident that there’s no better place for the Rays than at the Trop site. But, because they are a regional asset, I will do what I can to help them succeed no matter where they are, as long as they’re in the Tampa Bay region.”–St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman.

* “A one-county approach does very little to solve the regional challenge–the real challenge.”–Tampa Bay Partnership CEO Rick Homans, a major proponent of a regional approach to transportation in the Tampa Bay region.

* “The future of transportation isn’t just metal on wheels. It’s tech. We need to have as many vehicles on the road as possible that aren’t privately owned.”–Mark Sharpe, executive director of the Tampa Innovation Alliance.

* “Some people think rail is a U.N. plot.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn.

* “They say that if you can sell it or source it in Tampa Bay, you can send it by plane, train or truck anywhere on the planet. As a result, Tampa Bay is increasingly becoming the point of departure or arrival for goods and materials.”–Ryan Kratz, Colliers International regional president.

* “We’re trying to draw people downtown regardless of the elephant in the room. If you put the right project down there, people are going to come no matter what.”–Hoyt Hamilton, Clearwater City Council member, alluding to Scientology in the context of downtown revitalization plans.

* “Our goal with the administration is to show value at the U.N., and the way that we’ll show value is to show our strength. … For those that don’t have our back, we’re taking names.”–Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

* “No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war.”–Chinese President Xi Jinping.

* “Our two countries together have a responsibility to lead. Because when others step up, it is bad for America, for Britain and for the world.”–British Prime Minister Theresa May.

* “I never thought the U.S. people would go for a president like this. We don’t want the ugly American, which Trump represents: that imperial gringo that used to invade our country, that used to send the Marines, that used to put and take away presidents most everywhere in the world.”–Former Mexican President Vicente Fox.

* “It’s like a Rubik’s cube trying to figure this guy out. We have no freakin’ idea what he’s gonna do.”–Former Vice President Joe Biden.

* “President Trump is right to make sure we are doing everything possible to know exactly who is entering our country.”–House Speaker Paul Ryan.

* “This administration has mistaken cruelty for strength and prejudice for strategy.”–Nancy Pelosi, Democratic House minority leader.

* “Trump has changed the way the Republican Party sees the world. Republicans used to have a basic faith in the dynamism and openness of the free market. Now the party fears openness and competition.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “To make America great again, climate action is very logical. This is a very convincing story for job creation and economic growth.”–Paul Polman, chief executive of Uniliver, among the participants at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

* “The 45th president of the United States comes to office at a calmer time than the 32nd (Franklin D. Roosevelt) did, but Donald Trump’s demagogic populism and his movement’s willingness to traffic in ethnic and racial stereotypes have put many Americans in the mind of the chaos of the 1930s. From (Huey) Long to (Father) Charles Coughlin, we have been here before.”–Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian Jon Meacham.

* “Much attention has been given to the non-college-educated voters who rallied to Trump. Insufficient attention is given to the role of the college miseducated. They, too, are complicit in our current condition because they emerged from their expensive ‘college experiences’ neither disposed nor able to conduct civil, informed arguments.”–George Will, Washington Post.

* “Only in America can the ‘winning’ candidate question the integrity of the election.”–Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Curley.

* “Vice President Mike Pence wrote a letter to the American people, saying, ‘I’m what most people would call a ‘fun guy.’ In my spare time, I enjoy golf and heterosexuality.”–Satirist Andy Borowitz.

* “Highway express lanes are unsafe, inefficient and add an unnecessary burden for all users, as the numbers clearly show.”–State Sen. Frank Artiles, R-Miami.

* “I think it’s highly unlikely there will be a hard-core duty or tariff on products. I just think the risk of that is really, really bad for the economy.”–Jabil CEO Mark Mondello.

* “It’s time we ask ourselves why sports teams in our state get privileged treatment by the Legislature while small businesses are left to fend for themselves.”–Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon.

* “This is actually one of the biggest challenges, if not the biggest challenge, that this region has. All these things are inter-related. Our economic future is dependent on us being dry and us not being so threatened by flooding that people can’t live, work and play.”–Tampa City Council member Harry Cohen, on the local impact of rising sea levels.

* “No one is immune to working Gasparilla.”–Assistant Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan.

The template for daily newspapers keeps morphing, and here’s another indication. The Tampa Bay Times is soliciting donations from readers so it can expand its impactful PolitiFact reporting. It’s a membership program called the Truth Squad. “The chaos in the information market has meant PolitiFact has been busier–and more important–than ever,” explains PolitiFact editor Angie Drobnic Holan.

The financial reality is that funding from the newspaper, digital advertising and grants is still not enough. And yet, in a world of fake news and dissembling political leaders, there’s never been a greater need in this self-governing democracy for verifiable information. It’s what you do.

* “In 2016, the Anglo-Saxon world woke up. In 2017, I am sure that it will be the year of the Continental peoples rising up.”–Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front party.

* “The world is changing. America is changing. Europe is changing. … The genie will not go back into the bottle again, whether you like it or not.”–Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam Dutch Freedom Party.

* “The most obvious example of European populism is Germany in 1933.”–Pope Francis.

* “Thank you, Mr. President, from a grateful and patriotic community.”–Florida Congresswoman Kathy Castor.

* “The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour for action.”–Donald Trump, in his inaugural speech.

* “Our intention is never to lie to you.”–White House press secretary Sean Spicer, in addressing reporters at his first full press briefing.

* “We’ve made other countries rich, while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon.”–Trump inaugural speech.

* “When Mr. Trump and his advisers promise to make America great again, they are in effect envisioning Reagan 2.0, while overlooking how much has changed. … The nub of the problem here is nostalgia for a bygone era.”–Ruchir Sharma, chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

* “As a candidate, (Trump) could punch down at lesser figures and comment carelessly on foreign leaders. But if President Trump continues this in the Oval Office, he will lessen his stature, move markets, poison relationships and encourage adversaries to make miscalculations.”–Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to President George W. Bush.

* “For America to thrive, people across government will have to cooperate and build arrangements to quarantine and work around the president.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “Second-guessing or undercutting or trying to change Donald Trump is a fool’s errand. People who have watched this campaign should have discovered that by now.”–Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway.

* “Posting an asterisk next to an election result is not healthy for democracy.”–Ruth Marcus, Washington Post.

* “Obama’s absence of bitterness is remarkable. He leaves a legacy of integrity, eloquence and patient commitment in this dark hour of American politics.”–Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of Slate.

* “Never before has the Senate considered such an ethically challenged slate of nominees for key Cabinet positions.”–Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

* “My past statements made over five years ago about abolishing the Department of Energy do not reflect my current thinking. … I regret recommending its elimination.”–Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the nominee for secretary of energy.

* “A large part of the (United States) appears to have firmly replaced reality with a worldview based on opinions.”–Masha Gessen, author of “The Man Without a Face: the Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin.”

* “This is the first step in building a movement for people in the St. Petersburg area to get involved in social justice issues at a critical time.”–Amy Weintraub, organizer of the St. Petersburg women’s rights protest march that drew more than 20,000 people–the largest such protest in the city’s history.

* “We can whimper, we can whine or we can fight back.”–Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at the women’s march in Boston.

* “The Dow (Jones Industrial Average) is perhaps the least meaningful U.S. stock index available. … It includes only 30 large companies, and considering that Amazon, Google and Facebook are not part of the Dow, it is hard to make the case that it reflects the broader market.”–Jill Schlesinger, CBS News senior business analyst.

* “We don’t need more elected officials who are black. We need champions in the city.”–Charlene Carruthers, national director of the Black Youth Project 100 in Chicago.

* “Being chief legal officer of the state of Florida, I’m thrilled we’ll have a new Supreme Court justice who will follow the rule of law.”–Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

* “Legislators aren’t scared of Marion Hammer. They’re scared of the people I represent. They’re afraid to try to take away the rights of their constituents. I’m their voice.”–Longtime Florida gun lobbyist Marion Hammer.

* “Joe has national recognition … and for him to say, ‘I know what the Salvation Army is doing,’ that they’re not just helping bums on the street but they’re helping people put their lives together, that has so much weight. He’s just so good.”–Andy Miller, area commander of the Salvation Army, assessing the support of Joe Maddon.

* “Effective immediately, Cuban nationals who attempt to enter the United States illegally and do not qualify for humanitarian relief will be subject to removal, consistent with U.S. law and enforcement priorities. By taking this step, we are treating Cuban migrants the same way we treat migrants from other countries.”–President Barack Obama, in announcing the repeal of America’s “wet foot, dry foot” policy.

* “Russia challenged the integrity of our democratic system, and Europe’s 2017 electoral landscape is the next battlefield.”–William J. Burns, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former ambassador to Russia (2005-08).

* “Everything is under negotiation including One China.”–Donald Trump.

* “Laws alone won’t be enough. Hearts must change.”–President Barack Obama, reflecting on racial tensions during his farewell address in Chicago.

* “Should a president hold himself to a lower standard than his own appointees? I don’t think divestiture too high a price to pay to be the president of the United States of America.”–Office of Government Ethics chief Walter Shaub.

* “As far as hacking, I think it was Russia. Hacking’s bad and it shouldn’t be done. But look at the things that were hacked, look at what was learned from that hacking.”–Donald Trump.

* “I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president.”–Congressman John Lewis, D-Ga.

* “All talk, talk, talk–no action or results. Sad!”–Donald Trump’s response to John Lewis.

* “It’s telling, I’m afraid, that Donald Trump treats Vladimir Putin with more respect than he does John Lewis.”–Bill Kristol, founder of the Weekly Standard.

* “(Trump) said he is going to represent Americans–he’s said that over and over again. We will continue to evaluate that.”–Martin Luther King III.

* “If you try to go tweet-to-tweet with (Trump), more often than not you’re not going to succeed.” It’s like going to “a knife fight with a spoon.”–Outgoing Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez.

* “To announce that there must be no criticism of the president or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”–President Theodore Roosevelt.

* “For the first time in years, Republicans must shed their obstructionist mission and actually pass a few laws. The pressure is huge; only Charlie Manson has lower public approval ratings than Congress.”–Carl Hiaasen, Miami Herald.

* “If we go down this path, we won’t have (Affordable Care Act) repeal and replace. What we’ll have is repeal and repent, because we’re going to owe a huge apology to the American people for the damage that we cause.”–Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky, the senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

* “Our job today is to defend the ACA. Our job tomorrow is to bring about a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system.”–Sen. Bernie Sanders.

* “It’s a cruel jest to say a bootless man ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.”–Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

* “The conditions of this election weren’t tailor-made for me and I lost. But I’m not in therapy. I’m not in the fetal position. Life goes on.”–Jeb Bush.

* “Brick-and-mortar is not necessarily dead, but you need fewer stores to achieve the same amount of sales volume.”–Liz Dunn, CEO of Talmage Advisors, a retail consulting firm.

* “Contractors have relatively high expectations for 2017 as they predict the economy and demands for all types of construction will grow.”–Stephen E. Sandherr, CEO of Associated General Contractors of America.

* “The competitor in many ways is time. … It’s a different model that we can’t see how it works in today’s world… .”–Kenneth Feld, Chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, in announcing that after 146 years the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus would be closing in May.

* “Maybe we’ve taken a good thing too far, and now it is time to bring some common sense to it.”–Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, a member of the Florida Senate Education Appropriations subcommittee, on the need to rein in the number and impact of school exams.

* “What I saw was a highly organized event that managed traffic flow well. … I saw terrific customer service. And then I saw very strong branding without it being overwhelming.”–Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, commenting on how Tampa handled the college football championship game.

* “This move gives us access to Florida’s strong talent pool and allows us to continue the strategic expansion of our business.”–Rocky Silvestri, president of BlueLine Associates, a staffing and consulting agency that is moving its global headquarters to Tampa.

* “You can’t put a price on history.”–Richard Gonzmart.

* “The cruise business is a big part of what we do here, and it will play a major role in what we do going forward.”–Edward Miyagishima, vice president of communications and external affairs at Port Tampa Bay, commenting on the port’s plan to develop a niche market that doesn’t put it into direct competition with megaship ports.

* “I’ll always be a Bolt.”–Marty St. Louis.

* “But you also don’t need a performing arts center. You don’t need a waterfront parks system. These to me are amenities that really differentiate cities. It separates what are good cities from what are great cities.”–St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, defending his support of an enhanced Pier project.

* Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered, given the unconscionably polarized political climate that President Obama inherited. But, still, there was no defensible reason for the mainstream media to have acquiesced and, in effect, reinforced deplorable partisanship by adopting “Obamacare” as its short-hand for the Affordable Care Act. Headline- and talking-points convenience is not a good enough reason for accommodating Republican demonization of the president via its relabeling of the ACA.

Now “Obamacare” is institutionalized as an eponymous Republican target and rallying point. Call it an “Obamination.”

* Speaking of media laziness and cluelessness, it works both ways. I was told by a local network affiliate anchor that management had to rein in careless, on-camera references to Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. Because his name was foreign-sounding, some news readers were referring to the candidate as “Barack” on second reference. And given that their politics were likely on the left-hand side of the spectrum, it only reinforced certain characterizations of the mainstream media.

* To the surprise of no one who was privy to the deplorable dynamics of America’s presidential election, the Oxford Dictionaries named “post-truth” as its 2016 “word of the year.” It’s defined as a state “in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Actually, “post-truth” is a euphemistic upgrade for “fake news” for the gullible.

* One quick takeaway from the Golden Globes Awards: If we must have someone playing the role of president, too bad it can’t be Meryl Streep. And, yeah, Trump still got off easy.

* Maybe local media will experience, well, an epiphany some day and no longer consider the Tarpon Springs Epiphany celebration as worthy of a big page-one, above-the-fold splash and top-of-the-newscast coverage.

* Living languages are always changing. Back in the day, stuff we liked was “cool,” which had nothing to do with temperature. Today, it’s “awesome,” which typically has nothing to do with awe. “You know” interjections morph into “like” faux analogies. “Notoriety” now looks nothing like the noun version of notorious. It’s what languages and their contemporary speakers do over the course of generational and cultural changes.

But here’s one that still sounds weirdly stilted: when authorities report that someone who is unaccounted for “goes missing” or “went missing.” I can envision former English teachers wincing at that verbal hybrid. But now we have “went disappeared” as well. Would that it went, like, missing.

* Here we go again: Another reminder of not being in post-racial America is the periodic incidence of controversies erupting over the teaching of “To Kill a Mockingbird ” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” In the most recent case, it was a Virginia school district, where the books were banned from classrooms and libraries. A committee, of course, has been appointed to see if the bans should be permanent.

An obvious question is begged. Doesn’t context matter?

Why not make this a non-clichéd, teachable moment–not just in classic American literature but in contemporary societal maturity? How ironically hypocritical that we have to tolerate routine racist and sexist references in our pop culture, but we still draw a politically correct line at one complaining parent about American classics that have so much to teach. Is “N-Word Jim” the answer?

* “The tragedy of the Cuban Revolution is this: It endowed its citizens with abundant human capital, while it sadly left them bereft of the tools or incentives to gainfully employ their acquired talents.”–Richard E. Feinberg, former senior director of the National Security Council’s Office of Inter-American affairs under President Bill Clinton and author of “Open For Business: Building the New Cuban Economy.”

* “There can be no debate. … It is over.”–Vice President Joe Biden, as Congress certified Donald Trump’s presidential win over the objections of a handful of House Democrats.

* “I spent months never believing that he would be elected president. I sincerely hope that the office makes the man.”–Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

* “The capital has never been more anxious about its own government. The town is suffering pre-traumatic stress disorder. This guy is really going to be president.”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

* “The transition team’s collusion with Senate Republicans to jam through these cabinet nominees before they’ve been thoroughly vetted is unprecedented.”–Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

* “I can’t imagine a bigger contrast between the economy that President Obama inherited and the economy that President Obama is about to hand off.”–Labor Secretary Thomas Perez.

* “Factory jobs are important to the people who have them ,but they are no panacea for the economy and can’t justify policies–protectionism, self-serving jawboning–that are undesirable on other grounds. … Patriotism may be good politics; it is not always good economics.”–Robert Samuelson, Washington Post.

* “Black people understand what we mean when we say ‘black movie,’ but Hollywood cannot put that label on it. … If you keep labeling it a ‘black movie,’ white people are gonna be like, ‘Well, that’s a black movie.’ It’s a bad label.”–Ted Melfi, director of “Hidden Figures.”

* “With smoking, we started moving toward a norm where tobacco use was no longer cool–that was a cultural shift that we made in part through media and community-driven campaigns. That’s what we have to do with nutrition and physical activity, too.”–Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service.

* “While we are pleased with the strong performance of our highly developed online business … we continue to experience declining traffic in our stores where the majority of our business is still transacted.”–Terry J. Lundgren, chairman and CEO of Macy’s Inc., after announcing that Macy’s would close 68 stores and eliminate more than 10,000 jobs.

* “It’s a disgrace that taxpayer dollars are used to hire lobbyists when we elect people to represent them. The state doesn’t do it, and neither should the locals.”–Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes.

* “The world is watching and we are performing.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn.

* “Tampa Bay has the strongest employment growth in all of the state of Florida and has one of the hottest markets for residential construction in Florida and places that people want to live.”–Jason Robertson, vice president of development of Miami-based American Land Ventures.

* “There’s still a lot to do with implementation and what that means. I think we’re all just sort of anxiously awaiting the ‘What now?'”–Monica Russell, spokeswoman for Surterra, the Tampa-based cannabis grower and dispensary.

* “It’s not shot in Tampa but it’s not far. … We were as close as the Georgia tax rebate away.”–Ben Affleck, director and star of “Live By Night,” based on Ybor City rum-running but filmed in Brunswick, Ga.

The start of a new year, preceded by the presidential election from hell, has many in the media contorting over their roles–from self-criticism to self-flagellation.

To be sure, the media–notably electronic and tabloid–helped make Donald Trump just as it had over-covered Sarah Palin eight years prior. It’s right in their celebrity-politico wheelhouse. Only with Trump, the fascination had been ongoing for decades. A presidential run then amped up network coverage. By last spring, Trump had already received nearly $2 billion in free media coverage.

Les Moonves, the chairman-president-CEO of CBS, candidly summed up Trump’s candidacy  last year. “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,” conceded Moonves. Beyond shameful.

But there was also a sense that while this inexperienced, narcissistic candidate is great copy, there’s no way that this arrogant billionaire “populist” wins a nomination, let alone an election.

Count me in. I know weird stuff can come out of lowest-common-denominator-appealing, GOP primaries, especially when the variables included Tea Partiers, alt-rightists and hypocritical evangelicals. But I thought once the candidates had been winnowed down to a manageable number, Trump would be outted–for not, obviously, knowing enough. Can’t hide behind bluster when it’s just a couple of other candidates left. “The Art of the Deal,” where Trump acknowledges “playing to people’s fantasies,” surely didn’t apply here. Surely.

What we didn’t count on is that the “debates” continued on as galvanizing, show-biz gotcha exercises. Great ratings, queuing sponsors and overwhelmed, ultimately enabling moderators.

Then it was the nominee debates, with partisan viewers seeing and hearing what they wanted to see and hear. “Baskets of deplorables,” WikiLeaks and James Comey factored in. And one fourth of the electorate saw an unlikely, cult-figure savior.

Yeah, there’s plenty of blame, rationalizing and perfect-storm scenarios to address what happened. It makes perverse sense. But ultimately nothing is a good enough excuse for about a quarter of the electorate, however frustrated with their lives and fed up with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, to not recognize the manifestly obvious: They were voting to put a dangerously unprepared, existential threat into the White House. Didn’t matter.

But it did. And it does.

* I would highly recommend “The Crown” the 10-episode, Netflix series. Well-scripted, staged, acted and cast. Season 1 chronicles the era ranging from the aftershocks of King Edward VIII’s abdication to the last days in power of Winston Churchill. The one survivor through Queen Elizabeth II’s 63-year reign who will likely pass on binge-watching is Prince Philip. Early in the reign of Elizabeth, now 90, he’s portrayed as a case study in arrogance, swagger and identity crisis.

* Downsizing reality notwithstanding, the TB Times, via its Tampa Tribune editions, deserves credit for maintaining an old-school tradition: keeping a local cartoonist on board. So, plaudits to the Times for keeping Charlie Greacen around to keep state and local officials and captains of industry honest. Some things you can’t farm out; a resident cartoonist with a relevant, insightful wit is one of them.