Quoteworthy

  • “Russia is solely responsible for the treaty’s demise.”—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on the end of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Force Treaty signed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1987.
  • “With the end of the INF Treaty, a bit of security in Europe is being lost.”—German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
  • “China’s position is very clear that if the U.S. wishes to talk, then we will talk. If they want to fight, then we will fight.”—Zhang Jun, China’s ambassador to the United Nations.
  • “(Kim Jong Un) will do the right thing because he is far too smart not to, and he does not want to disappoint his friend, President Trump.”—President Donald Trump, on his friendly relationship with Kim—in the context of North Korea’s recent missile tests.
  • “Trump has the opportunity to be the president who, like Harry Truman, redirected U.S. foreign policy for a generation.”—Paleoconservative political commentator Patrick J. Buchanan.
  • “Hate has no place in our country, and we’re going to take care of it.”—Donald Trump.
  • “(President Donald Trump’s) demagoguery has made skillful use of an old American tradition: employing differences of race to make people forget huge differences of wealth. It’s exactly what Southern plantation owners did when they got non-slave-owning whites to join them in fighting for the Confederacy.”—Adam Hochschild, the Nation.
  • “It’s not the beginning of a long series of rate cuts. What we are seeing is that it is appropriate to adjust policy to a somewhat more accommodative stance over time.”—Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, in announcing the reduction of the benchmark interest rate–by a quarter-point—for the first time in more than a decade.
  • “We want to see a surge in reshoring and new manufacturing jobs, but the Administration’s policies have fallen short of getting us there.” Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.
  • “Republicans will never do anything on gun control. Never.”—David Jolly, former Republican Florida congressman.
  • “The overall trend of glacier retreat around the world is due to both warming air and warming oceans. They’re getting eaten away at both ends.”—University of Oregon oceanographer David Sutherland.
  • “The real third rail of health-care reform—whether we’re talking about single-payer, a public option or anything else—is the question no one seems to be asking: Will you require doctors to make less money?”—Catherine Rampell, Washington Post.
  • “With the Juuls, kids are able to get a much higher dose of nicotine—and dose matters.”—Sharon Levy, director of the Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program at Boston Children’s Hospital.
  • “It’s going to be a mosh pit for the next 30 years. The question is how we operate collaboratively when we have a mix of self-driving and manually driven vehicles.”—Gregory Winfree, director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and a former assistant secretary of transportation during the Obama Administration.
  • “Homelessness is a big issue throughout the country and in Florida, and they are at higher risk to spread hepatitis A around.”—Dr. Eugene Schiff, director for liver diseases at the University of Miami School of Medicine. To date, Florida has had more than 2,000 hepatitis A cases since the beginning of the year. It had 548 all of last year.
  • “The Sunshine Skyway bridge is the flagship bridge for the Tampa Bay area and the state of Florida.”—Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Kris Carson, in announcing that FDOT is in the process of installing some 1,800 colored LED Light fixtures on the bridge. The project will cost an estimated $15 million, with the funding coming from tolls. All other major Florida bridges are lit—and when new ones are built lighting is included.
  • “Now we face rebuilding our reserves. We must be prepared to weather another recession, if anything comes our way.”—Mayor Jane Castor in underscoring a key priority in her first budget ($1.04 billion) presentation to City Council. At 23 percent, the “rainy day” fund is well above what’s needed to protect Tampa’s credit rating.
  • “I’m thrilled that Mosaic has stepped up to the plate.”—Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp, in response to Mosaic Fertilizer offering to donate land for a ferry terminal on part of its Big Bend Mosaic Terminal site.

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