Useful Idiots

“Hamas Takes a Big Risk in Deal to Release Hostages.” —New York Times headline

Theater of the Absurd

“We’ve had truly an amazing summer.” —Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker regarding Chicago’s 123 homicides

The BIG Lies

“There’s no antifa. This is an entirely imaginary organization. There is not an antifa.” —Jimmy Kimmel

“There was no violence at all [in Portland]. There was no destruction at all.” —retired U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin

“[Republicans] decided to shut the government down. … Republicans have voted for a partisan spending bill.” —House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Non Compos Mentis

“Letting the very small number of transgender students in Minnesota play on their school sports teams doesn’t harm anyone, but segregating them does.” —Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison

“I agree with the concerns expressed by parents and players that we have to take into account biological factors such as muscle mass and unfair student athletic advantage when we determine who plays on which teams, especially in contact sports. … There was no way I was going to go against my very nature and turn on transgender people.” —Kamala Harris

Re: The Left

“There is no question that the side in greater danger today of becoming the party of political murder is the one whose highly educated followers have long considered themselves uniquely tolerant.” —Michael Barone

“Battles over Columbus Day aren’t really about Christopher Columbus at all — they’re about whether America should exist.” —Daniel McCarthy

Editorial Exegesis

“Republicans are talking like they’re prepared to surrender to Democrats on extending the pandemic-era ObamaCare subsidies once the government reopens. They might want to check out Wednesday’s Congressional Budget Office report that the deficit for the last fiscal year clocked in at $1.8 trillion.” —The Wall Street Journal

The Art of the Deal

“The conventional wisdom said that military action could not guarantee security. That wasn’t just wrong; it was catastrophically wrong: It was military action that took out the supporting pillars beneath Hamas’ feet. The conventional wisdom said that the United States ought to play a peculiar neutral role between Israel and its genocidal enemies. That wasn’t just wrong; it was idiotically wrong: The Trump administration’s open support for Israel’s military victory led to actual victory. The conventional wisdom said that threatening to kill terror leaders abroad would be conflagrationist. That, too, was wrong: It was Israel’s willingness to kill terror masters in Iran and Qatar that led to Qatar and Turkey deciding to press for Hamas’ ouster, with a carrots-and-sticks approach led by Trump. For understanding the Middle East better than all the so-called experts … Trump undoubtedly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.” —Ben Shapiro

“A lifetime of maneuvering for advantage in the real estate and media worlds in New York City — searching for and using every ounce of leverage — was better preparation for high-level international diplomacy than if Trump had spent a lifetime on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.” —Rich Lowry

Touché

“In an interview that very few people evidently read, James Comey admitted to being a communist in the 1970s. … Maybe the FBI should have been investigating James Comey for Russian collusion.” —Gary Bauer