Theater of the Absurd

“Let me be clear to any corporation that hasn’t brought their prices back down even as inflation has come down: It’s time to stop the price gouging. Give American consumers a break.” —President Joe Biden

“We shouldn’t assume or expect that people are automatically gonna give credit where credit is due if we don’t remind folks how these things came about.” —Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg

The BIG Lies

“The [Hunter Biden] laptop, so to speak … that was published in the New York Post was actually a hard drive that the New York Post admitted here was not authenticated as real. It was not the laptop the FBI had. … Hard drives could be manipulated by Rudy Giuliani or Russia … there is actual evidence of it.” —Congressman Dan Goldman (D-NY)

“There’s not a scintilla of evidence that Republicans have produced to show that President Joe Biden has engaged in wrongdoing, an impeachable offense, or in any way has broken the law. Why? Because there is no evidence that exist to implicate President Joe Biden in anything nefarious.” —House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)

Belly Laughs of the Day

“President Biden is a good man. He’s a good and decent and hardworking man, and that’s been his entire life in public service.” —Hakeem Jeffries

“We’re about the bread and butter of governing. We’re not about the chaos, we’re not about the drama, we’re not about the partisan politics. We’re about getting stuff done.” —Pete Buttigieg

Hot Air

“We’re burrowing into our own graves. I’m so unhappy that you don’t understand how imperative the [climate] situation is. We’re dying, man. Your children are going to have difficulty living. Do you understand that? … Much sooner than we expected, we’re going to die.” —actor William Shatner

Observations

“I’d wager that even Hamas did not anticipate the ease with which they could drum up support for their position that the slaughter of innocents in the most horrific ways imaginable is somehow ‘justified’ as a mechanism for obtaining their purported political objectives. They are profiting from the ignorance of the American public and the widespread antisemitism that has taken root here, especially among so-called intellectuals and on college campuses.” —Laura Hollis

“Politicians run on promises to solve the country’s problems, but once in office, double down on the policies that caused the problems in the first place. Why? Is it about money? I don’t think so. I think it is far more fundamental than greed. Proclaiming a belief in objective standards of right and wrong is unpopular. It is an acknowledgement that there are principles that supersede our own wants and decisions. This is anathema in an era when people are told that everyone can decide for themselves what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong,’ ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ ‘true’ and ‘false.’ This is nothing more than setting ourselves up as God.” —Laura Hollis

“An objective moral order is scientifically rooted in the nature of human beings and therefore necessary for human society to flourish. Like all demonstrable scientific laws, it is immutable. You can decide you ‘don’t believe in’ gravity, but if you throw yourself off a building, you’ll be dead nevertheless. Similarly, decisions to reward — or at least, not to sanction — those who engage in bad behavior have terribly unpleasant results, including punishing those who do not.” —Laura Hollis

“Morality based on the oppressor vs. oppressed model is always going to be a setup for horrors to be justified in its name. It’s merely racism with another face.” —Emmy Griffin

Political Futures

“It feels like DeSantis went before the Republican primary electorate and said, ‘Hey, I may not be the most lively and charismatic personality, but I can deliver you some things you’ve been forced to do without for a long time: consistent conservative philosophy, competence in governing, and an attention to the details of policy.’ And the Republican primary electorate listened to that offer and said, ‘Nah, we’ll pass. We’ve got a guy who already lost to Joe Biden, now facing four criminal indictments, and we’re feeling really good about his odds!’” —Jim Geraghty