The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Insight: “[T]he so-called sovereigns, in these different governments, are 
simply the heads, or chiefs, of different bands of robbers and murderers.” —political theorist Lysander Spooner (1808-1887)

Upright: “Sure, we’ve got a lot of reasons to be angry. But the country is in a very Dark-Side-of-the-Force mood, convinced that anger is empowering, not blinding. At some point, a person enveloped in relentless, fiery anger and grievances stops making sense to anyone else. When a movement’s philosophy is so easily summarized by ‘GFY,’ it’s hard to believe they’re being unfairly ‘bashed.’” —National Review’s Jim Geraghty

Gun grabber: “The Republicans walk the NRA line and refuse even limited restrictions. … I support the ban on assault weapons.” —Donald Trump in his book “The America We Deserve”

Friendly fire: “Every month government comes out with a statistic on unemployment. The last statistic said that official unemployment was 5.3% but what they forgot to tell you is that statistic doesn’t include those people who have given up looking for work, those people who are working part time. Add it all together and real unemployment is over 10%.” —Bernie Sanders (He’s right. But how are his policies any different from Obama’s?)

Nothing to see here: “You might hear some news over the next few days about Hillary Clinton’s emails. This kind of nonsense comes with the territory of running for president. We know it, Hillary knows it, and we expect it to continue from now until Election Day.” —Jennifer Palemieri, Clinton campaign communications director

Observations: “Hillary Clinton is in such deep legal trouble over her emails that she needs the backing of Obama to survive. … He controls the attorney general’s office and therefore he controls Hillary (and her freedom) as long as he is president. Everything she says and does in the presidential campaign must be viewed against this reality.” —PJMedia’s Roger Simon

Late-night humor: “A new poll shows that Hillary Clinton is only six points ahead of Bernie Sanders. Today a very confident Hillary said, ‘Oh, please. Like I’m going to lose the Democratic nomination to a left-wing senator nobody’s ever heard of!’” —Conan O'Brien