Category: Media Watch

* “International diplomacy has been reduced to name-calling, giving it a surreal sense of unreality that makes the world security situation ever more threatening.”–Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

* “Something terrible, and perhaps irreparable, has happened. The idea of America has been sullied. It has fallen victim to Trump’s untruth, indecency, racism and contempt for the values without which American greatness is inconceivable. The president is at home with despots because he sees himself in them. … He has turned the meaning of the word ‘America’ on its head. He has empowered bigots, thugs, bullies, racists, nationalists and nativists the world over.”–Roger Cohen, New York Times.

* “History suggests that democratic norms are vulnerable to polarization. Some polarization is healthy, even necessary, for democracy. But extreme polarization can kill it. … Parties come to view each other not as legitimate rivals but as dangerous enemies.”–Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, co-authors of “How Democracies Die.”

* “Democrats are far more concerned with illegal immigrants than they are with our great military or safety at our dangerous southern border.”–Donald Trump.

* “We are not going to allow (presidential assistant) Stephen Miller to exploit a crisis that he and his boss created to take a wrecking ball to the Statue of Liberty and enact his nativist wish list.”–Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a pro-immigration group.

* “She probably has some tiny, shriveled husk left in her soul where she realizes this is the wrong thing to do. But she does it anyway because otherwise they’ll replace her.”–Florida-based, conservative commentator Rick Wilson, on White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

* “Barack Obama was always calling to our better angels. Donald Trump is paying off porn stars and denigrating struggling countries that send minorities to the U.S. as ‘sh*tholes.’ How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

* “It’s pretty clear to me that everybody in the White House knows it would be the end of President Trump’s presidency if he fired Mr. Mueller.”–Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

* “Is what we’re watching a tragedy or a farce?”–Ross Douthat, New York Times.

* “Women can be not only complicit but enabling in sexual abuse, and we women as a community, as a society, need to recognize that every single one of us needs to take a good look at who we’ve stood up for and who we haven’t.”–Juliet Williams, professor of gender studies at UCLA.

*  “Evangelicals have cast their lot with a hedonistic president who seems to merely give the Bible lip service at public functions.”–Jamil Smith, HuffPost.

* “You have not taken gymnastics away from me. I love this sport, and that love is stronger than the evil that resides in you, in those who enabled you to hurt many people.”–Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, among the more than 150 women and girls who confronted Larry Nassar over his abuse of gymnasts.

* “Going to sleep with the lights off doesn’t make us anti-electricity. In the same way, turning off our phones to be able to reconnect with the people and things we most value doesn’t make us anti-technology.”–Arianna Huffington.

* “And look at the job God gave me now.”–Pope Francis, while chatting with reporters aboard the papal plane. The Holy Father has been known to have had frosty relations with the Argentine media.

* “Extending this moratorium (scheduled to end in 2022) will ensure that there is no question that Florida is off the table from drilling and not at the mercy of politicians like Gov. Rick Scott and President Donald Trump who have flip flopped on the issue.”–U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.

* “I cannot more enthusiastically endorse and completely support your run.”–Sean Hannity’s gubernatorial endorsement of Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis.

* “One of the biggest things we’re trying to do is ‘green’ our fleet of generators.”–TECO CEO Nancy Tower.

* “I think that patients in Florida  should be able to grow their own without fear of being arrested.”–Joe Redner, registered medical marijuana patient, who is challenging state rules that ban Florida residents from growing their own marijuana.

* “We are transitioning from an economy that was focused on construction and tourism and agriculture to an economy that is built on technology. We are global in our perspective.”    Mayor Bob Buckhorn.

* “It is not so expensive that it really is out of the realm of us figuring out how to pay for it.”–Tampa City Council member Harry Cohen, on the financial perspective of the bus rapid transit proposal.

* “I think it’s my greatest feat ever in the game of hockey to put a hockey team in Florida.”–Tampa Bay Lightning founder Phil Esposito.

* “We will continue to prosecute the campaign against terrorists, but great-power competition–not terrorism–is now the primary focus of U.S. national security.”–Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

* “I cannot believe that in the history of the White House in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak.”–Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin on that infamous WH meeting with lawmakers on immigration.

* “The wall is the wall. It has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it. The $20 billion wall is peanuts compared to what Mexico makes from the U.S. NAFTA is a bad joke.”–Donald Trump.

* “Shutting down the government of the United States of America should never, ever be used as a bargaining chip for any issue, period. It should be to governing as chemical warfare is to real warfare. It should be banned. It should be unthinkable.”–Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

* “I think we look petty. We look that we care more about the party flag than the American flag.”–Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

* “It’s unfortunate it took a shutdown to get an agreement for a Senate vote to protect our DREAMers. … The fact remains that in a Republican-controlled Washington, we still don’t have a budget four months into the new fiscal year. … This is no way to run a country–much less the most powerful one in the world.”–Florida Democratic Congressman Charlie Crist.

* “Certain things are said during the campaign that are uninformed. One thing is to campaign, another thing is to govern. It’s really hard.”–White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

* “The phrase ‘fake news’–granted legitimacy by an American president–is being used by autocrats to silence reporters, undermine political opponents, stave off media scrutiny and mislead citizens. … Without strong leadership in the White House, Congress must commit to protecting independent journalism, preserving an open and free media environment and defending the fundamental right to freedom  of opinion and expression.”–Sen. John McCain.

* “This was effectively a gag order by the White House.”–California Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, on why Steve Bannon refused to answer the Committee’s questions.

* “Sleeping with a porn star while your wife has a newborn, then paying the porn star to be quiet? That’s what everyone expects of this president.”–Michelle Goldberg, New York Times.

* “The age of chivalry is no more. We now have raw patriarchy, which asserts its rights through naked displays of power.”–Jeet Heer, New Republic.

* “A gentleman is good to women because he has his own dignity and sees theirs.”–Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.

* “It’s hard to see when you’re in the middle of it. But it feels like something’s happening, a fervor, an excitement, an optimism.”–Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, on a sense of increasing activism among women voters.

* “It’s 2018, a big election year, and women are going to be running everywhere. … That’s Hillary’s gift.”–Gail Collins, New York Times.

* “We march, we run, we vote, we win.”–Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, at the female empowerment march in Washington.

* “So far, a record 31 Republicans are quitting the House. That’s 13 percent of the entire caucus–and it’s only January. Perhaps they sense a Democrat wave in November. … If you thought 2017 was full of political turmoil with an unorthodox president who isn’t really a Republican feuding with factions in the House and Senate that seem like several GOP parties, wait until Democrats get control of congressional committees with the power of subpoenas, investigations and even possible impeachment.”–Andrew Malcolm, McClatchy Washington Bureau.

* “Let me say it again, because there’s been a lot of noise from Donald Trump over the past year since he’s been president. Vladimir Putin has something that he is holding over Donald Trump’s head. (Trump’s) hoping when the truth comes out … that we will all be too numb to notice.”–“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough.

* “One simply cannot keep up with, much less respond with proper outrage to, all of (Trump’s) scandals, bungles, blame-shifting, name-calling and missteps, his sundry acts of mendacity, misanthropy, perversity and idiocy. … Give him this much, though. He has banished apathy. … He’s galvanized a powerful resistance that has claimed upset victories from Alabama to Wisconsin and left Gumby-spined Republicans looking over their shoulders.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.

* “Mr. Trump’s first year has been an unremitting parade of disgraces that have demeaned him as well as the dignity of his office, and he has shown that this is exactly how he believes he should govern.”–Author and Princeton University professor of history Sean Wilentz.

* “Apple is a success that could only have happened in America, and we always felt a very big sense of responsibility to give back to our country and the people who have made our success possible.”–Apple CEO Tim Cook, in announcing plans to build another corporate campus and hire 20,000 workers as part of a commitment partially financed by the new tax law.

* “Going to sleep with the lights off doesn’t make us anti-electricity. In the same way, turning off our phones to be able to reconnect with the people and things we most value doesn’t make us anti-technology.”–Arianna Huffington.

* “Extending this moratorium (scheduled to end in 2022) will ensure that there is no question that Florida is off the table from drilling and not at the mercy of politicians like Gov. Rick Scott and President Donald Trump who have flip flopped on the issue.”–U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.

* “The elected officials running for office in Florida have to be told, and we’re saying this over and over: Puerto Ricans here are voting for Puerto Rico. If you vote against helping Puerto Rico help itself, then we’re going to vote against you, whoever you are. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican.”–Luis de Rosa, president of the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of South Florida.

* “I cannot more enthusiastically endorse and completely support your run.”–Sean Hannity’s gubernatorial endorsement of Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis.

* “We are transitioning from an economy that was focused on construction and tourism and agriculture to an economy that is built on technology. We are global in our perspective. That is why we love companies like yours.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn, in addressing Kristo Kaarmann, co-founder of London-based TransferWise, which now operates out of the J. Seidenberg & Co./Havana-American Cigar Factory in Ybor City.

* “It is not so expensive that it really is out of the realm of us figuring out how to pay for it.”–Tampa City Council member Harry Cohen, on the financial perspective of the bus rapid transit proposal.

* “It is an awesome opportunity to take a hidden jewel with Gasparilla that doesn’t have a lot of national familiarity and expose it to a new audience.”–Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, on the Gasparilla Parade and the NHL All-Star Game sharing the same spotlight in downtown Tampa this weekend.

* A couple of thoughts after seeing Barack Obama as the initial guest on David Letterman’s new Netflix series “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.”

< Obama’s legacy could very well be: How depressingly disappointing that the election of the first non-white person as U.S. president wasn’t a game changer for the better. It stoked birtherism and whitewashed populism. For all those, this scribe included, who thought maybe now America would come to grips with where we fit in the world, how crushingly delusional. But Mitch McConnell had set the record straight within nanoseconds of Obama’s inauguration when he underscored that it was his party’s top priority to make Obama a “one-term president.”

< The juxtaposition of Obama–articulate, classy, well-informed, personable, humorous–with Trump could conceivably prove to be a motivating force for everyone not part of the deplorable basket to get involved enough to take back their country–while it’s still there for the taking back.

* If you only see one uber-publicized movie this awards season, make it “The Post.” No, it wasn’t cooed over critically like “Lady Bird” and “The Shape of Water,” but the takeaways are worth it.

We need, as a vulnerable democracy, to be reminded of the role and relevance of real, however imperfect, journalism. Never more than now, when mainstream media is routinely demonized by Donald Trump and all those who channel his communication pathologies.

After watching “The Post,” or “Spotlight” or “All The President’s Men,” you don’t just exit the theater. You leave with a renewed appreciation of what the First Amendment means and what is always at stake in a constitutional democracy. The truth must matter the most.

Interesting to see that a Morgan & Morgan attorney is representing the woman who was injured at that Jannus Live concert featuring Insane Clown Posse, the horrorcore hip-hop duo. And, no, it wasn’t the first time an Insane Clown Posse concert resulted in civil action. Somehow, I don’t see this case showing up as part of a “For-the-People” TV marketing strategy.

* “I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.”–Donald Trump.

* “One cannot force one’s lifestyle on the future generations. The problem is that we want two generations after us to live the way we like them to.”–Iran President Hassan Rouhani.

* “Nationalism is a powerful current in Iranian life, and Mr. Trump is offering Ayatollah Khamenei the gift of a credible straw man–with alacrity, it seems,”–Laura Secor, author of “Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran.”

* “We should root for both the Iranian and Saudi youth movements to bury 1979. It would be a gift for Muslims the world over–and for the world at large, which has spent trillions of dollars countering the furies fueled by that pivotal year.”–Thomas Friedman, New York Times.

* As fearful as we are of thousands of Americans going down to Cuba and recreating the mass tourism model that destroyed much of the Caribbean, tourism has to be part of the solution.”–American marine biologist and Ocean Doctor founder David E. Guggenheim.

* “This is a system that is hackable and prone to human and technical error.”–Bruce G. Blair, nuclear security expert and research scholar at Princeton University, on America’s Emergency Notification System.

* “DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it. They just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our military.”–Donald Trump.

* “While unqualified people are marching in, qualified people are fleeing. … Just one year of Donald Trump has moved us a long way toward a government of the worst and dumbest. It’s a good thing the man at the top is, like, smart.”–Paul Krugman, New York Times.

* “The fact is that Americans already have all the data they need to judge Trump’s fitness. After all, do you really need a physicist to explain what will happen to you if you walk in front of a speeding train?”–Richard Friedman, professor of clinical psychiatry and director of the psychopharmacology clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College.

* “Oprah: Sounder on economics than Bernie Sanders, understands Middle America better than Elizabeth Warren, less touchy-feely than Joe Biden, more pleasant than Andrew Cuomo, more charismatic than John Hickenlooper.”–Conservative commentator Bill Kristol.

* “We are in the age of celebrity and the next one will and can be anything–Nobel laureate, movie star, professional wrestler, talk-show host, charismatic corporate executive.”–Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.

* “Pay attention to undecided voters. Undecideds almost always break toward the challenger. It happened in 2016 to Trump. In midterms, they break away from the party holding the White House.”–Amy Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report.

* “Whether Jeff Sessions likes cannabis is not the question. The people of California voted overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana for recreational use.”–Kevin de Leon, the California State Senate leader.

* “Dear (Interior) Secretary Zinke: California, like Florida, has hundreds of miles of beautiful coastline and a governor who wants to keep it that way. Or is that not enough for a blue state?”–California Rep. Adam Schiff.

* “Everybody who’s been fighting drilling for years is seeing Rick Scott in the period of a week change his tune on drilling and then emerge as the champion in a choreographed press conference.”–Frank Jackalone, the Sierra Club’s Florida chapter director.

* “Telemarketers with a cool title.”–Former Florida Congressman Patrick Murphy, on what it felt like to have to be consumed by fund-raising while a member of Congress.

* “I’m not left; I’m not right. I’m forward.”–Philip Levine, Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former mayor of Miami Beach.

* “Having the president governing from our county in an area bordered by water on each side in a facility never built to offer the level of protection the president requires is a challenge.”–Palm Beach County Commissioner David Kerner.

* “We did in six weeks what we did last year in three months. Imagine what we could have done in three months.”–Jodi Ray, director of Florida Covering Kids & Families at the University of South Florida. Florida led all states with 1.75 million people signing up for the Affordable Care Act during the (Nov.1-Dec.15) open enrollment period.

* “So far, there’s no indication that this growth is slowing down any time soon. This record is significant and underscores the importance of Tampa International Airport’s master-planned projects and the need to build now and build smart.”–Hillsborough County Aviation Authority Chairman Robert Watkins, on TIA’s record 2017 passenger count of nearly 20 million and how that reinforces the ongoing expansion projects.

* “Unless we are willing to ask the public to tax themselves significantly in order to make it happen, then realistically, light rail is really not going to happen.”–St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman.

* “There’s no evidence that somebody purposefully tried to harm somebody. Nobody is saying that these people didn’t experience some event, but there’s no evidence that that was a deliberate attack by somebody, either the Cubans or anybody else.”–Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, saying the U.S. has found no evidence that American diplomats in Havana were the victims of attacks with an unknown “sonic” weapon.

* “As an institution we have to make it clear that we are dealing here with a scalpel not a sledge-hammer. Because you can’t have a situation where people say, ‘Oh, you can’t trust the FBI.’ That creates a spirit of anarchy.”–Congressman Peter T. King, R-N.Y.

* “From his reputation and everything I know about him, I remain convinced that when this is all said and done, Mueller is going to only pursue things that are true, and he will do it in a fair and balanced way. I think the best thing that can happen for the president, for the country and for everyone is that he be allowed to complete his investigation as thoroughly and as completely as possible and that we allow the facts from that investigation to lead where they may.”–Sen. Marco Rubio.

* “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.”–Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

* “To serve in this White House isn’t to be elevated to public service. It’s to be debased into toadyism.”–Brett Stephens, New York Times.

* “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. … (He) was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.”–Donald Trump.

* “We are at risk of a coup d’etat in this country if we allow an unaccountable person with no oversight to undermine the duly elected president of the United States.”–Congressman Matt Goetz, R-Fla., in calling for special counsel Robert Mueller to resign or be fired.

* “Mr. Trump’s opponents hate him more than his supporters love him. That’s a huge problem for the GOP and the president.”–Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush.

* “Some combination of Trump’s personality and temperament and advancing age leave him constantly undone by the obligations of the presidency.”–Ross Douthat, New York Times.

* “As it turns out, electing a president with literally no relevant experience is a lot like asking someone who didn’t attend dental school to perform a root canal.”–Bess Levin, Vanity Fair.

* “Senate Republicans have spent a year writing bills without any Democratic input that hurt the middle class and pleased their wealthy, hard-right benefactors. There is a chance for bipartisanship, but only if Senate Republicans reverse course, tell their hard-right benefactors they can’t dictate policy and genuinely work with Democrats.”–Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

* “Let’s go back in time (1787), and we’re in Philadelphia, we’re trying to hammer out the Constitution. Tell me how the 24-hour-hour news cycle would have affected writing the Constitution.”–Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

* “Nobody is better at producing clean, quality, responsible energy than the U.S. Clean, reliable, abundant and affordable energy is what’s driving our economy.”–Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

* “A new day is on the horizon!”–Oprah Winfrey.

* “Good evening, ladies and remaining gentlemen.”–Opening line by Golden Globes host Seth Meyers.

* “Bitcoin is a massive experiment and there are many ways that the experiment can go wrong. People should consider this as a form of gambling.”–Christian Catalini, founder of MIT’s Crypto-economics Lab.

* “We have a tax bill that provides short-term massive benefits to the extremely wealthy. This bill ignores the pressing issue of climate change and further exacerbates inequality.”–Stetson University economist Alan Green.

* “While Ron DeSantis has dedicated himself to protecting Trump and becoming a Fox News star, we look forward to a debate on the issues that affect Florida families.”–Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gwen Graham.

* “Our goal is to pass a budget that’s a lower dollar amount than the governor.”–Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, the lead budget writer in the Florida House.

* “It’s going to be a great showcase of a hockey city.”–Steven Stamkos, on Tampa hosting the Jan. 28 NHL All-Star Game.

* The Tampa Bay Times, like a lot of daily newspapers has undergone all kinds of changes. We won’t list them here. But one is obviously proofreaders. Redundant wording and misspelling (yes, that’s a two-s word) can appear on a front page or in a lead graph, a cutline or a prominent editorial. It is what it is in the world of depleted resources, attention-span deficits and technological competition.

But it’s ironic that the Times can still cling to a style-purity time. Quotes that include “suck” morph into (“stink”) and a “hell” reference becomes “heck” for columnists. Helluva new normal.

* For those who loved Guillermo Del Torro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth,” here’s hoping you’re not too disappointed in his “The Shape of Water.” While most of the usual Oscar-spinning opinion-shapers have lavished praise on the latter, it is not some aesthetically delightful, magical-realism escape. “Pan’s Labyrinth” it’s not. It’s not even close.

Think “‘Dr. Strangelove Meets the Creature from the Black Lagoon.'” Think romanticized bestiality with some societal irony, cinematic creativity and allegorical touches.

Here’s a personal rule of thumb for movie watching: If you’re often reminded that you are, indeed, watching a movie, that’s not a good sign. “Pan’s Labyrinth” transfixed and transported. “The Shape of Water” trafficked in a gimmick–a ripped guy with gills in a wet suit–that is impossible to transcend.

Or maybe it’s just me.

* As our country rapidly grows stronger and smarter, I want to wish all of my friends, supporters, enemies, haters and even the very dishonest Fake News Media, a happy and healthy new year.2018 will be a great year for America.”–Donald Trump.

* “Here’s hoping 2018 brings more ethical leadership, focused on the truth and lasting values. Happy New Year, everybody.”–Former FBI Director James Comey.

* “We’re seeing the presidency completely and utterly transformed in a way I don’t think we’ve seen since before the Civil War.”–Jeffrey A. Engel, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University.

* “Events in recent months have illuminated the depth of the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace. And events in the past few weeks have made clear that the judicial branch is not immune.”–U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, in underscoring that the federal court system must do more to protect law clerks and other employees from abusive conduct.

* “There’s less to lose sleep about now than there’s been for quite some time.”–Outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

* “It’s an honor and a pleasure to be considered and acknowledged for my music and my charity work, both of which I love.”–The newly-knighted Ringo Starr.

* “There is a growing recognition that for most people and most businesses most of the time, local government has become the most important order of government. … This is not a time for the weak and meek in local governments.”–Author and urbanist Gord Hume.

* “Student-athletes have always been considered unpaid amateurs engaging in extracurricular activities rather than profitable professions. So college sports is deemed part of the educational mission of schools and exempt from income taxes. … That means the college sports machine keeps cranking out expensive entertainment, and the scandals that go with it, while sheltered by the scholastic equivalent of a Cayman Islands tax dodge.”–Mike McIntire, author of “Champions Way: Football, Florida, and the Lost Soul of College Sports.”

* “Puerto Ricans are Americans. They are U.S. citizens, and a lot of my fellow members of Congress don’t understand that.”–Sen. Bill Nelson.

* “Most of the public policy challenges with medical marijuana laws stem from the conflict between state and federal law.”–Ben Pollara, executive director of Florida for Care.

* “Florida is just not predictable.”–USF political analyst Susan MacManus.

* “This suggests that vacation rentals on Airbnb and other platforms are opening up the state to a new demographic of tourists by catering to travelers who are less able to afford hotels.”–Statement by Airbnb on Florida’s 40,000 Airbnb hosts and 2.7 million Florida Airbnb guests.

* “There’s going to be a Democratic turnout that’s energized. A countywide race is going to be a nightmare. Look at what happened in Alabama.”–Hillsborough County Republican activist Sam Rashid.

* “We’re going to be aggressive in 2018 with transit. … There’s a lot on the plate and this will be a very aggressive year for us.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman.

* “HART is the most under-funded transit agency in the nation by a long shot.”–County Commissioner Pat Kemp.

* “By launching rockets and treating scientists like stars, Kim Jong-un gives his people a sense of progress. It’s not just a military project but also a political stratagem.”–Lee Yun-keol, a defector who runs the North Korea Strategic Information Service Center in Seoul.

* “In 30 or 50 years, the Czech Republic will be surrounded by countries with populations where 20 percent of the people will be Muslims. That is as if the Czech Republic became a Gaza Strip. We need to prevent mass migration even if we should build a wall.”–Holland’s Geert Wilders, a member of the European Parliament, at a recent meeting of the nationalist Europe of Nations and Freedom coalition in Prague.

* “Brexodus.”–Term for labor shortage in Great Britain since last year’s “Brexit” referendum.

* “I just want to wish everybody a very, very merry Christmas, we say Merry Christmas again, very, very proudly. Very, very Merry Christmas.”–Donald Trump.

* “We are witnessing the most significant departure of diplomatic talent in generations.”–Joint statement by former U.S. diplomats R. Nicholas Burns and Ryan C. Crocker.

* “We don’t have enough people to do all the work that needs to be done as a general matter.”–Former I.R.S. Commissioner John A. Koskinen, in underscoring that the agency is understaffed and faces serious challenges in implementing the new tax code.

* “The easy part is the revolution. The hard part is democracy. … The trend is obviously in the wrong direction.”–Sen. John McCain.

* “The fight over (the tax bill) is just beginning. Democrats will campaign against it and hope to repeal much of it. And no matter which party is in charge, Congress and the White House will have to revisit tax policy in coming years, because this bill is full of gimmicky expiration dates.”–David Leonardt, New York Times.

* “This is a terrible, cynical way to make tax policy.”–Justin Fox, Bloomberg Politics.

* “This tax cut is more unpopular than tax hikes were during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.”–Jonathan Bernstein, former University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist.

* “This may be the last opportunity for business leaders to do what hasn’t been done in a generation, and that is to defend the reputation of capitalism.”–Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.

* “The Tax Cut/Reform Bill, including massive Alaska drilling and the repeal of the highly unpopular Individual Mandate, brought it all together as to what an incredible year we had. Don’t let the fake news convince you otherwise.”–Donald Trump.

* “Other than the tax bill, this first session of Congress has been a bit of a bust. And that probably means that this Congress is a bust, because first sessions tend to be a little bit more productive than second sessions.”–Washington University political scientist Steven S. Smith.

* “Hope springs eternal, but there would have to be a real reversal from the way they’ve operated now.”–Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, on prospects for bipartisanship in the coming year.

* “Misogyny is such a core aspect of Trump. It makes it quite natural for female politicians on the left to be his foil because standing up to him on those issues is so core to taking him on in general. Male politicians are trying to keep up.”–Brian Fallon, former top aide to Hillary Clinton.

* “I don’t rule anything out.”–Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake’s response to speculation that he might challenge Donald Trump in the next presidential election.

* “When I leave the Senate in a few weeks, I’ll continue trying to be an educated citizen, and an advocate and an activist.”–Sen. Al Franken.

* “It’s easy to get re-elected in Alabama. What those people want from government is to be left alone. And if you leave them alone and don’t raise their taxes, they’ll continue to re-elect you.”–Alabama State Sen. Dick Brewbaker.

* “When people claim to observe truly unusual phenomena, sometimes it’s worth investigating seriously. What people sometimes don’t get about science is that we often have phenomena that remain unexplained.”–M.I.T. astrophysicist Sara Seager.

* “When my colleagues refer to the special counsel’s investigation as a ‘coup d’état,’ it really undermines the rule of law in this country.”–Florida Congressman Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton.

* “There are a handful of Florida cities that have chosen to crack down on short-term rentals and penalize taxpaying homeowners. I fear this will have a chilling effect on tourism.”–Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward.

* “If I drop out of the governor’s race, the donors who gave to the campaign will get a prorated portion of the money back.”–State Sen. Jack Latvala.

* “If you catch someone soliciting prostitution one time, the consequences are not as serious. But if you make the case for multiple incidents, it rises to the level of racketeering.”–TPD spokesman Steve Hegarty, on the crack down on Kennedy Boulevard massage parlors.

* “We have been talking about this for years, and we’d tell people it would be amazing. Now seeing it, even we are surprised at how amazing it looks.”–Tampa Theatre spokeswoman Jill Witecki, on the recent reopening of Tampa Theatre after $6 million in renovations.

* “Definitely sad to see him go. He was pretty instrumental in everything that’s great about our city.”–The Lightning’s Steven Stamkos on the departure of the Rays Evan Longoria.

* “Opening cinemas will act as a catalyst for economic growth and diversification.”–Awwad Alawwad, head of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture and Information, in explaining why the Saudis are lifting a decades-old ban on movie theaters.

* “The World Trade Organization is losing its essential focus on negotiation, and is becoming a litigation-centered organization.”–Robert Lighthizer, U.S. trade representative to the WTO.

* “If (Mueller) finds crimes and (Congress) goes Democratic, there will be moves for impeachment in 2019.”–Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.

* “There’s no collusion whatsoever.”–President Donald Trump.

* “Russia’s two subversions, of global sports and American democracy, have more in common than you may think. Both involved intelligence agents, Russia’s will to win and the same cyberespionage team. Both have … challenged public confidence–in the purity of sport and in the strength of democracy.”–Rebecca R. Ruiz, New York Times.

* “I think we could go to 4, 5 or even 6 percent, ultimately. We are back. We are really going to start to rock.”–Donald Trump, in predicting that the economic rate of growth would soar as a result of Republican tax cuts.

* “We benefited from an enlightened period in the post-war United States. Our National Institutes of Health have enthusiastically and generously supported basic research … (but) the current climate in the U.S. is a warning that continued support cannot be taken for granted.”–Michael Rosbash, the American researcher who shared this year’s Nobel Prize for medicine.

* “…someone who would come to my office ‘begging’ for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them) is now in the ring fighting against Trump.”–Donald Trump, in responding to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who called for Trump to resign over allegations of sexual improprieties.

* “But let’s not kid ourselves. We all know what (Trump) was saying. In so many words, the president basically just shouted “Whore!” at a U.S. senator.”–Paul Waldman, American Prospect.

* “I think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up.”–U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki R. Haley.

*”We cannot have a rash of people coming out and people getting fired and then back to business as usual.”–Facebook CFO Sheryl Sandburg.

* “We’ve got to make sure that in this crossroads in Alabama’s history, we take the right road. We’ve lagged behind in industry. We’ve lagged behind in education. We’ve lagged behind in health care.”–Newly-elected Alabama Democratic Sen. Doug Jones.

* “Steve Bannon is a cancer. Good people in Alabama were the first dose of chemo.”–Rick Wilson, Florida-based, Republican strategist.

* “The rot afflicting the GOP is comprehensive–moral, intellectual, political and reputational.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “I think there’s a huge, simmering energy among Democrats right now, and many moderate Republicans are concerned about Trump and the direction of the country.”–Dan Gelber, newly elected Democratic mayor of Miami Beach.

* “Trump’s inability to distinguish his grandiose fantasies from reality will give the midterms an urgency rarely seen in a non-presidential election. … Democrats will ask voters: Do they want to bring the Trumpian nightmare to an end? … Election of a Congress of the opposite party would, for most presidents, be daunting. For Trump, it would be politically fatal.”–Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post.

* “If the consensus is that the (baseball) stadium should be in Tampa at the site that’s been reported then I think you’re going to see, not necessarily just the chamber, but the business community really show its support more so than it had been in the past.”–Mike Griffin, outgoing chairman of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.

* “I don’t need a job, and I really enjoy what I do. It’s not about the title or the trappings, but the ability to work and get things done.”–Attorney, civic activist and transit advocate Ed Turanchik, who says he’s taking another look at a run for mayor in 2019.